Rare‐Earth Single Erbium Atoms for Enhanced Photocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction
Shufang Ji, Yang Qu, Tao Wang, Yuanjun Chen, Guofeng Wang, Xue Li, Juncai Dong, QiuYu Chen, Wanying Zhang, Zedong Zhang, Shiyou Liang, Rong Yu, Yu Wang, Dingsheng Wang, Yadong Li
Abstract
Abstract The solar‐driven photocatalytic reduction of CO 2 (CO 2 RR) into chemical fuels is a promising route to enrich energy supplies and mitigate CO 2 emissions. However, low catalytic efficiency and poor selectivity, especially in a pure‐water system, hinder the development of photocatalytic CO 2 RR owing to the lack of effective catalysts. Herein, we report a novel atom‐confinement and coordination (ACC) strategy to achieve the synthesis of rare‐earth single erbium (Er) atoms supported on carbon nitride nanotubes (Er 1 /CN‐NT) with a tunable dispersion density of single atoms. Er 1 /CN‐NT is a highly efficient and robust photocatalyst that exhibits outstanding CO 2 RR performance in a pure‐water system. Experimental results and density functional theory calculations reveal the crucial role of single Er atoms in promoting photocatalytic CO 2 RR.