Organic Electron Donor‐Acceptor Co‐intercalated NiMn‐LDHs – Photocatalysts with Enhanced Separation of Charge Carriers for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub>
Yuexian Li, Jingjing Shi, Lei Wu, Junzheng Zhang, Jun Lu
Abstract
Abstract Developing good photocatalysts for reducing CO 2 to carbonaceous fuels has aroused interest. However, the efficiency of photocatalytic CO 2 reduction remains low. In this work, we report a novel organic electron donor‐acceptor system to realize the two dimensional photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process by coprecipitation‐in situ oxidation method to synthesize 4,4′‐diaminostilbene‐2,2′‐disulfonic acid (DAS) and 4,4′‐dinitrostilbene‐2,2′‐disulfonic acid disodium salt (DNS) co‐intercalated Ni 2 Mn‐LDHs (Ni 2 Mn‐LDHs‐DAS, DNS). Due to the two‐dimensional confinement of LDHs, DAS and DNS were arranged in a single molecule parallel in the interlayer, resulting in a π‐π interaction between the two organic anions. It promoted the photogenerated electrons by the DAS‐DNS to migrate to the hydrotalcite layer to participate in CO 2 photoreduction rather than recombination with the holes. The optimum Ni 2 Mn‐DAS, DNS‐n showed the highest total consumed electron number of 13.99 μmol g −1 , which was 3 times higher than that of Ni 2 Mn−CO 3 . Our findings provide a new way for improving the CO 2 photoreduction activity of hydrotalcite‐based photocatalysts and achieve the combination of organic and inorganic semiconductors.