Facile synthesis of C3N4-supported metal catalysts for efficient CO2 photoreduction

Abstract

Facile synthesis of photocatalysts with highly dispersed metal centers is a high-priority target yet still a significant challenge. In this work, a series of Co-C 3 N 4 photocatalysts with different Co contents atomically dispersed on g-C 3 N 4 have been prepared via one-step thermal treatment of cobalt-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and urea in the air. Thanks to the highly dispersed and rich exposed Co sites, as well as good charge separation efficiency and abundant mesopores, the optimal 25-Co-C 3 N 4 , in the absence of noble metal catalysts/sensitizers, exhibits excellent performance for photocatalytic CO 2 reduction to CO under visible light irradiation, with a high CO evolution rate of 394.4 μmol•g -1 •h -1 , over 80 times higher than that of pure g-C 3 N 4 (4.9 μmol•g -1 •h -1 ). In addition, by this facile synthesis strategy, the atomically dispersed Fe and Mn anchoring on g-C 3 N 4 (Fe-C 3 N 4 and Mn-C 3 N 4 ) have been also obtained, indicating the reliability and universality of this strategy in synthesizing photocatalysts with highly dispersed metal centers. This work paves a new way to develop cost-effective photocatalysts for photocatalytic CO 2 reduction.

Rational Design of Metal–Organic Framework‐Based Materials for Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction

“…Zhong and co‐workers prepared a series of g‐C 3 N 4 ‐supported metal photocatalysts (metal = Co, Fe, or Mn) via the one‐step thermal treatment of the related MOFs and urea in air. [ 113 ] The ultrathin nanosheet structure of g‐C 3 N 4 could offer highly dispersed N atom‐based binding sites for stabilizing the atomically dispersed metal catalysts. The obtained photocatalysts had the ability to reduce CO 2 to CO in the absence of PS.…”

Combining metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs): Emerging opportunities for new materials and applications

“…However, their photocatalytic activity is hampered due to their rare active sites and inherent high exciton binding energy [164,165]. MOFs, by virtue of the abundance of active site and semiconductor-like band structure, are considered as another nominator but suffer from spontaneous and fast exciton quench [166][167][168][169][170][171][172]. By combining dynamic covalent chemistry of COFs with coordination chemistry of MOFs, novel MOFs, COFs as well as MOF@COF hybrids have been developed in the applications of photodegradation of pollutants, hydrogen generation, and organic transformation reactions [28,76,77,133,173].…”

Building 2D/2D CdS/MOLs Heterojunctions for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

“…Since the pioneering work by Fujishima and Honda in 1972, [1] photocatalytic water splitting for H 2 production has been considered as one of the most promising means in developing clean energy. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Among reported photocatalysts for catalyzing water splitting, cadmium sulfide (CdS) has attracted considerable attention owing to its strong visible light response, suitable redox potentials, and band gap (≈2.4 eV). [13][14][15][16][17] Up to now, a variety of CdS nanostructures with morphologies of nanoparticles, [14] nanorods, [18] nanosheets, [19] and 3D hierarchical nanoflowers [20][21] have been prepared and applied in photocatalytic water splitting.…”