Developing Atomically Thin Li1.81H0.19Ti2O5·2H2O Nanosheets for Selective Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction to CO

Jingyu Xue; Yu Yu; Chen Yang; Kaifu Zhang; Xiaowen Zhan; Jimei Song; Jiaojiao Gui; Yunkai Li; Xin Jin; Shan Gao; Yi Xie

doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02944

Developing Atomically Thin Li_1.81H_0.19Ti₂O₅·2H₂O Nanosheets for Selective Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction to CO

Langmuir. 2022 Jan 11;38(1):523-530. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02944. Epub 2021 Dec 21.

Authors

Jingyu Xue¹, Yu Yu¹, Chen Yang², Kaifu Zhang¹, Xiaowen Zhan¹, Jimei Song¹, Jiaojiao Gui¹, Yunkai Li¹, Xin Jin¹, Shan Gao¹, Yi Xie³

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Chemistry for Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Functionalized Materials, Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230601, People's Republic of China.
² State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
³ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 34932356
DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02944

Abstract

Solar-driven CO₂ conversion to carbon-based fuels is an attractive approach to alleviate the worsening global climate change and increasing energy issues. However, exploring and designing efficient photocatalysts with excellent activity and stability still remain challenging. Herein, layered Li_1.81H_0.19Ti₂O₅·2H₂O (LHTO) nanosheets were explored as the photocatalyst for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction, and atomically thin LHTO nanosheets with one-unit-cell thickness were successfully constructed for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. The atomically thin LHTO nanosheets exhibited excellent performance for CO₂ photoreduction to CO, with a yield rate of 4.0 μmol g^-1 h^-1, a selectivity of 93%, and over 25 h photostability, dramatically outperforming the bulk LHTO. The better performance of the atomically thin LHTO nanosheets was experimentally verified to benefit from more sites for CO₂ adsorption, faster electron transfer rate, and a more negative conduction band edge compared with bulk LHTO. This work provided a methodological basis for designing more efficient photocatalytic CO₂ reduction catalysts.