Dimension-Matched Zinc Phthalocyanine/BiVO4 Ultrathin Nanocomposites for CO2 Reduction as Efficient Wide-Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalysts via a Cascade Charge Transfer

Ji Bian; Jiannan Feng; Ziqing Zhang; Zhijun Li; Yuhang Zhang; Yadi Liu; Sharafat Ali; Yang Qu; Linlu Bai; Jijia Xie; Dongyan Tang; Xin Li; Fuquan Bai; Junwang Tang; Liqiang Jing

doi:10.1002/anie.201905274

Dimension-Matched Zinc Phthalocyanine/BiVO₄ Ultrathin Nanocomposites for CO₂ Reduction as Efficient Wide-Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalysts via a Cascade Charge Transfer

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Aug 5;58(32):10873-10878. doi: 10.1002/anie.201905274. Epub 2019 Jul 19.

Authors

Ji Bian^{1

2}, Jiannan Feng¹, Ziqing Zhang¹, Zhijun Li¹, Yuhang Zhang¹, Yadi Liu³, Sharafat Ali¹, Yang Qu¹, Linlu Bai¹, Jijia Xie⁴, Dongyan Tang², Xin Li², Fuquan Bai³, Junwang Tang⁴, Liqiang Jing¹

Affiliations

¹ Department Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), School of Chemistry and Materials Science, International Joint Research Center and Lab for Catalytic Technology, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, 150080, P. R. China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, P. R. China.
³ International Joint Research Laboratory of Nano-Micro Architecture Chemistry, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, P. R. China.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK.

PMID: 31199043
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201905274

Abstract

Cascade charge transfer was realized by a H-bond linked zinc phthalocyanine/BiVO₄ nanosheet (ZnPc/BVNS) composite, which subsequently works as an efficient wide-visible-light-driven photocatalyst for converting CO₂ into CO and CH₄ , as shown by product analysis and ¹³ C isotopic measurement. The optimized ZnPc/BVNS nanocomposite exhibits a ca. 16-fold enhancement in the quantum efficiency compared with the reported BiVO₄ nanoparticles at the excitation of 520 nm with an assistance of 660 nm photons. Experimental and theoretical results show the exceptional activities are attributed to the rapid charge separation by a cascade Z-scheme charge transfer mechanism formed by the dimension-matched ultrathin (ca. 8 nm) heterojunction nanostructure. The central Zn²⁺ in ZnPc could accept the excited electrons from the ligand and then provide a catalytic function for CO₂ reduction. This Z-scheme is also feasible for other MPc, such as FePc and CoPc, together with BVNS.

Keywords: BiVO4 nanosheets; CO2 conversion; nanocomposites; phthalocyanine; visible-light catalysis.

Abstract

Grants and funding