Facilitating Molecular Activation and Proton Feeding by Dual Active Sites on Polymeric Carbon Nitride for Efficient CO<sub>2</sub>Photoreduction
Xiaoqiang An, Qingwen Tang, Huachun Lan, Huijuan Liu, Xuelian Yu, Jiuhui Qu, Huiwen Lin, Jinhua Ye
Abstract
Abstract Photoreduction of CO 2 provides an appealing way to alleviate the energy crisis and manage the global carbon balance but is limited by the high activation energy and the rate‐limiting proton transfer. We now develop a dual‐site strategy for high‐efficiency CO 2 conversion through polarizing CO 2 molecules at pyridine N vacancies and accelerating the intermediate protonation by protonated pyridine N adjacent to nitrogen vacancies on polymeric carbon nitride. Our photocatalysts with atomic‐level engineered active sites manifest a high CO production rate of 1835 μmol g −1 h −1 , 183 times higher than the pristine bulk carbon nitride. Theoretical prediction and experimental studies confirm that such excellent performance is attributed to the synergistic effect between vacant and protonated pyridine N in decreasing the formation energy of the key *COOH intermediates and the efficient electron transfer relay facilitated by the defect‐induced shallow trap state and homogeneous charge mediators.