Defect-Rich Bi12 O17 Cl2 Nanotubes Self-Accelerating Charge Separation for Boosting Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction

Jun Di; Chao Zhu; Mengxia Ji; Meilin Duan; Ran Long; Cheng Yan; Kaizhi Gu; Jun Xiong; Yuanbin She; Jiexiang Xia; Huaming Li; Zheng Liu

doi:10.1002/anie.201809492

Defect-Rich Bi₁₂ O₁₇ Cl₂ Nanotubes Self-Accelerating Charge Separation for Boosting Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2018 Nov 5;57(45):14847-14851. doi: 10.1002/anie.201809492. Epub 2018 Oct 15.

Authors

Jun Di^{1

2}, Chao Zhu², Mengxia Ji¹, Meilin Duan³, Ran Long³, Cheng Yan², Kaizhi Gu⁴, Jun Xiong¹, Yuanbin She⁵, Jiexiang Xia¹, Huaming Li¹, Zheng Liu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute for Energy Research, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, 212013, P. R. China.
² Center for Programmable Materials, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
³ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, and National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, P. R. China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, P. R. China.
⁵ College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310032, P. R. China.

PMID: 30178910
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201809492

Abstract

Solar-driven reduction of CO₂ , which converts inexhaustible solar energy into value-added fuels, has been recognized as a promising sustainable energy conversion technology. However, the overall conversion efficiency is significantly limited by the inefficient charge separation and sluggish interfacial reaction dynamics, which resulted from a lack of sufficient active sites. Herein, Bi₁₂ O₁₇ Cl₂ superfine nanotubes with a bilayer thickness of the tube wall are designed to achieve structural distortion for the creation of surface oxygen defects, thus accelerating the carrier migration and facilitating CO₂ activation. Without cocatalyst and sacrificing reagent, Bi₁₂ O₁₇ Cl₂ nanotubes deliver high selectivity CO evolution rate of 48.6 μmol g^-1 h^-1 in water (16.8 times than of bulk Bi₁₂ O₁₇ Cl₂ ), while maintaining stability even after 12 h of testing. This paves the way to design efficient photocatalysts with collaborative optimizing charge separation and CO₂ activation towards CO₂ photoreduction.

Keywords: Bi12O17Cl2 nanotubes; CO2 reduction; charge separation; oxygen defects; photocatalysis.

Abstract

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