Premium
Single Ni Atoms Anchored on Porous Few‐Layer g‐C 3 N 4 for Photocatalytic CO 2 Reduction: The Role of Edge Confinement
Author(s) -
Cheng Lei,
Yin Hui,
Cai Chao,
Fan Jiajie,
Xiang Quanjun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.202002411
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , materials science , coordination number , cationic polymerization , intercalation (chemistry) , crystallography , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , catalysis , ion , biochemistry , organic chemistry , polymer chemistry
It is greatly intriguing yet remains challenging to construct single‐atomic photocatalysts with stable surface free energy, favorable for well‐defined atomic coordination and photocatalytic carrier mobility during the photoredox process. Herein, an unsaturated edge confinement strategy is defined by coordinating single‐atomic‐site Ni on the bottom‐up synthesized porous few‐layer g‐C 3 N 4 (namely, Ni 5 ‐CN) via a self‐limiting method. This Ni 5 ‐CN system with a few isolated Ni clusters distributed on the edge of g‐C 3 N 4 is beneficial to immobilize the nonedged single‐atomic‐site Ni species, thus achieving a high single‐atomic active site density. Remarkably, the Ni 5 ‐CN system exhibits comparably high photocatalytic activity for CO 2 reduction, giving the CO generation rate of 8.6 µmol g −1 h −1 under visible‐light illumination, which is 7.8 times that of pure porous few‐layer g‐C 3 N 4 (namely, CN, 1.1 µmol g −1 h −1 ). X‐ray absorption spectrometric analysis unveils that the cationic coordination environment of single‐atomic‐site Ni center, which is formed by Ni‐N doping‐intercalation the first coordination shell, motivates the superiority in synergistic N–Ni–N connection and interfacial carrier transfer. The photocatalytic mechanistic prediction confirms that the introduced unsaturated Ni‐N coordination favorably binds with CO 2 , and enhances the rate‐determining step of intermediates for CO generation.