Three-in-One Oxygen Vacancies: Whole Visible-Spectrum Absorption, Efficient Charge Separation, and Surface Site Activation for Robust CO2 Photoreduction

Hongjian Yu; Jieyuan Li; Yihe Zhang; Songqiu Yang; Keli Han; Fan Dong; Tianyi Ma; Hongwei Huang

doi:10.1002/anie.201813967

Three-in-One Oxygen Vacancies: Whole Visible-Spectrum Absorption, Efficient Charge Separation, and Surface Site Activation for Robust CO₂ Photoreduction

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Mar 18;58(12):3880-3884. doi: 10.1002/anie.201813967. Epub 2019 Jan 29.

Authors

Hongjian Yu¹, Jieyuan Li², Yihe Zhang¹, Songqiu Yang³, Keli Han³, Fan Dong⁴, Tianyi Ma⁵, Hongwei Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Materials Utilization of Nonmetallic Minerals and Solid Wastes, School of Materials Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China.
² College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610065, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongshan Road 457, Dalian, 116023, China.
⁴ Research Center for Environmental Science & Technology, Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
⁵ Discipline of Chemistry, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.

PMID: 30600588
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201813967

Abstract

A facile and controllable in situ reduction strategy is used to create surface oxygen vacancies (OVs) on Aurivillius-phase Sr₂ Bi₂ Nb₂ TiO₁₂ nanosheets, which were prepared by a mineralizer-assisted soft-chemical method. Introduction of OVs on the surface of Sr₂ Bi₂ Nb₂ TiO₁₂ extends photoresponse to cover the whole visible region and also tremendously promotes separation of photoinduced charge carriers. Adsorption and activation of CO₂ molecules on the surface of the catalyst are greatly enhanced. In the gas-solid reaction system without co-catalysts or sacrificial agents, OVs-abundant Sr₂ Bi₂ Nb₂ TiO₁₂ nanosheets show outstanding CO₂ photoreduction activity, producing CO with a rate of 17.11 μmol g^-1 h^-1 , about 58 times higher than that of the bulk counterpart, surpassing most previously reported state-of-the-art photocatalysts. Our study provides a three-in-one integrated solution to advance the performance of photocatalysts for solar-energy conversion and generation of renewable energy.

Keywords: CO2 reduction; Sr2Bi2Nb2TiO12 nanosheets; charge separation; oxygen vacancies; photocatalysis.

Abstract

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