Aimed at obtaining economically valuable fuels or chemicals,the chemical conversion of CO2 provides a renewable utilization route for CO2,which is one of the most promising alternatives to solve current carbon emission issue and achieve CO2 neutrality. Compared with traditional thermocatalysis,photocatalytic technology has the advantages of low energy consumption and mild reaction conditions,and is one of the ideal solutions to realize the energy utilization of CO2. However,owing to the chemical stability of CO2,the conversion reactions that convert CO2 are relatively low. The research core of photocatalytic CO2 reduction is to improve the catalytic activity of photocatalysts through the design of catalyst and reaction system so as to improve the selectivity and controllability of the CO2 reduction products. Due to the urgency of photocatalytic CO2 conversion technology at the present stage,a timely and comprehensive understanding of the research progress in this field in recent years is helpful to reasonably analyze the possible research direction in the next stage. The research progress of photocatalytic CO2 reduction was reviewed from the advantages of photocatalysis,reaction mechanism,catalysts and the latest research results. The composition of the photocatalysis system,the electron reduction process of CO2,and the current products of CO2 photocatalytic conversion,yield,scale and factors affecting the selectivity of products were described in detail. The strategies to improve the reduction performance were mainly elaborated,including the introduction of noble metals co-catalysts,the construction of heterojunction structure,exploring  new photocatalysts,the construction of electron transport channel and coupling of electric or thermal catalysis with photocatalysis,etc. The results show that the above strategies can improve the conversion rate of CO2 reduction reaction in varying degrees,and the types of reduction products gradually develop from C1 to C2. Notably,photoelectric/photothermal catalysis has a higher conversion rate than photocatalysis alone,which improves the possibility of future application of this technology and deserves much research and attention. In addition,it is pointed out that the current photocatalytic reduction of CO2 has problems of insufficient conversion efficiency,poor product selectivity,and unable to achieve controllable synthesis of high value-added products,etc. Future research should focus on the development of high-efficiency photocatalysts and the catalytic kinetics.