Single Ni Atoms Anchored on Porous Few‐Layer g‐C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> for Photocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction: The Role of Edge Confinement
Lei Cheng, Hui Yin, Chao Cai, Jiajie Fan, Quanjun Xiang
Abstract
Abstract 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.