The proposed pathway for this conversion process utilizes solar energy, a readily available renewable resource. The conversion to methane only requires water as a co-reactant, negating the need for any mined or manufactured consumables, thus greatly enhancing the conversion process’s economic viability and moving it toward achieving a target net cost of less than $10 per metric ton. The proposed pathway also offers an added benefit of simultaneously neutralizing organic contaminants in waste water systems, which can be used as electron-hole scavenger materials to increase reaction yields. The chemical conversion of CO2 utilizing an inexpensive and abundant fuel source, such as sunlight, would eliminate many of the issues facing existing and emerging bio-conversion processes or biofuels, such as competing with other land or crop use, increased water demand, ongoing governmental subsidies, etc. A direct chemical conversion process would utilize the high concentration of CO2 emissions from fossil power plants and convert them into usable fuel at a faster rate, a matter of seconds, for the subject process, compared to days for bioconversion of feedstocks such as algae, and months for cane, corn, and oil seeds.