Premium
La 2 O 3 ‐Modified LaTiO 2 N Photocatalyst with Spatially Separated Active Sites Achieving Enhanced CO 2 Reduction
Author(s) -
Lu Lei,
Wang Bing,
Wang Shaomang,
Shi Zhan,
Yan Shicheng,
Zou Zhigang
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201702447
Subject(s) - materials science , chemisorption , adsorption , molecule , oxygen , redox , photocatalysis , proton , photochemistry , catalysis , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
Activating CO 2 molecule and promoting proton release from kinetically sluggish water oxidation are two important half‐reaction processes for achieving efficient solar‐driven conversion of CO 2 to fuels. Here, an effective route is proposed that uses a solid base to modify photocatalyst with defects, aiming to simultaneously accelerate the two reaction processes. To verify this hypothesis, the La 2 O 3 is decorated on surface of LaTiO 2 N with oxygen vacancies, achieving a twofold increase in CH 4 yield rate for CO 2 reduction. The prominent activity results from the following two effects: (1) The O 2− in La 2 O 3 as basic sites favors CO 2 chemisorption in the form of CO 3 2− species, greatly contributing to both the bending of OCO bond and the decrease of the lowest unoccupied molecule orbit energy of CO 2 molecule. (2) The oxygen vacancies on LaTiO 2 N are beneficial in activating H 2 O to adsorbed OH, thus effectively decreasing the reaction barriers of water oxidation to release protons. The design concept of simultaneously activating the CO 2 and H 2 O at different spatial sites may offer a new strategy to suppress the reverse reactions for efficient solar energy conversion.