Dipole field in nitrogen-enriched carbon nitride with external forces to boost the artificial photosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide
Zhi Li, Yuanyi Zhou, Yingtang Zhou, Kai Wang, Yang Yun, Shanyong Chen, Wentao Jiao, Li Chen, Bo Zou, Mingshan Zhu
Abstract
Abstract Artificial photosynthesis is a promising strategy for efficient hydrogen peroxide production, but the poor directional charge transfer from bulk to active sites restricts the overall photocatalytic efficiency. To address this, a new process of dipole field-driven spontaneous polarization in nitrogen-rich triazole-based carbon nitride (C 3 N 5 ) to harness photogenerated charge kinetics for hydrogen peroxide production is constructed. Here, C 3 N 5 achieves a hydrogen peroxide photosynthesis rate of 3809.5 µmol g −1 h −1 and a 2e − transfer selectivity of 92% under simulated sunlight and ultrasonic forces. This high performance is attributed to the introduction of rich nitrogen active sites of the triazole ring in C 3 N 5 , which brings a dipole field. This dipole field induces a spontaneous polarization field to accelerate a rapid directional electron transfer process to nitrogen active sites and therefore induces Pauling-type adsorption of oxygen through an indirect 2e − transfer pathway to form hydrogen peroxide. This innovative concept using a dipole field to harness the migration and transport of photogenerated carriers provides a new route to improve photosynthesis efficiency via structural engineering.