Visible Light-Driven Conversion of Carbon-Sequestrated Seawater into Stoichiometric CO and HClO with Nitrogen-Doped BiOCl Atomic Layers

Yanbiao Shi; Hongwei Shou; Hao Li; Guangming Zhan; Xupeng Liu; Zhiping Yang; Chengliang Mao; Jundi Cheng; Xu Zhang; Yaqian Jiang; Shengxi Zhao; Jiaxian Wang; Xiao Liu; Li Song; Hongwei Sun; Lizhi Zhang

doi:10.1002/anie.202302286

Visible Light-Driven Conversion of Carbon-Sequestrated Seawater into Stoichiometric CO and HClO with Nitrogen-Doped BiOCl Atomic Layers

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2023 Jun 12;62(24):e202302286. doi: 10.1002/anie.202302286. Epub 2023 May 5.

Authors

Yanbiao Shi^{1

2}, Hongwei Shou³, Hao Li¹, Guangming Zhan¹, Xupeng Liu², Zhiping Yang², Chengliang Mao⁴, Jundi Cheng², Xu Zhang², Yaqian Jiang², Shengxi Zhao², Jiaxian Wang¹, Xiao Liu², Li Song³, Hongwei Sun², Lizhi Zhang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, P. R. China.
² Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Environmental & Applied Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, P. R. China.
³ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230029, P. R. China.
⁴ Materials Chemistry and Nanochemistry Research Group, Solar Fuels Cluster, Departments of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.

PMID: 37067456
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202302286

Abstract

Seawater is one of the most important CO₂ sequestration media for delivering value-added chemicals/fuels and active chlorine; however, this scenario is plagued by sluggish reaction rates and poor product selectivity. Herein, we first report the synthesis of nitrogen-doped BiOCl atomic layers to directly split carbon-sequestrated natural seawater (Yellow Sea, China) into stoichiometric CO (92.8 μmol h^-1 ) and HClO (83.2 μmol h^-1 ) under visible light with selectivities greater than 90 %. Photoelectrons enriched on the exposed BiOCl{001} facet kinetically facilitate CO₂ -to-CO reduction via surface-doped nitrogen bearing Lewis basicity. Photoholes, mainly located on the lateral facets of van der Waals gaps, promote the selective oxidation of Cl^- into HClO. Sequestrated CO₂ also maintains the pH of seawater at around 4.2 to prevent the alkaline earth cations from precipitating. The produced HClO can effectively kill typical bacteria in the ballast water of ocean-going cargo ships, offering a green and safe way for onsite sterilization.

Keywords: Active Chlorine; CO2 Reduction; Carbon Sequestration; Photocatalysis; Seawater.

Abstract

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