International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xi'an Shiyou University, Xi'an, 710054, China.
Small. 2019 Aug;15(32):e1900772. doi: 10.1002/smll.201900772. Epub 2019 Apr 12.
Artificial photosynthesis for solar water splitting and CO reduction to produce hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuels has been considered as one of the most promising ways to solve increasingly serious energy and environmental problems. As a well-documented metal-free semiconductor, polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) has been widely used and intensively investigated for photocatalytic water splitting and CO reduction, owing to its physicochemical stability, visible-light response, and facile synthesis. However, PCN as a photocatalyst still suffers from the fast recombination of electron-hole pairs and poor water redox reaction kinetics, greatly restricting its activity for artificial photosynthesis. Among the various modification approaches developed so far, decorating PCN with metals in different existences of nanoparticles, single atoms and molecular complexes, has been evidently very effective to overcome these limitations to improve photocatalytic performances. In this Review article, a systematic introduction to the state-of-the-art metal/PCN photocatalyst systems is given, with metals in versatility of nanoparticles, single atoms, and molecular complexes. Then, the recent processes of the metal/PCN photocatalyst systems in the applications of artificial photosynthesis, e.g., water splitting and CO reduction, are reviewed. Finally, the remaining challenges and opportunities for the development of high efficiency metal/PCN photocatalyst systems are presented and prospected.
人工光合作用用于太阳能水分解和 CO 还原以生产氢气和碳氢燃料，被认为是解决日益严重的能源和环境问题的最有前途的方法之一。作为一种有充分文献记录的无金属半导体，聚合碳氮化物（PCN）由于其物理化学稳定性、可见光响应和易于合成，已被广泛应用和深入研究用于光催化水分解和 CO 还原。然而，PCN 作为光催化剂仍然存在电子-空穴对快速复合和水氧化还原反应动力学性能差的问题，这极大地限制了其在人工光合作用中的活性。在迄今为止开发的各种改性方法中，用不同存在形式的纳米粒子、单原子和分子配合物来修饰 PCN，明显非常有效地克服了这些限制，提高了光催化性能。在这篇综述文章中，我们系统地介绍了各种金属/PCN 光催化剂体系的最新进展，包括纳米粒子、单原子和分子配合物中的金属。然后，我们回顾了金属/PCN 光催化剂体系在人工光合作用应用中的最新进展，例如水分解和 CO 还原。最后，我们提出并展望了高效金属/PCN 光催化剂体系发展所面临的挑战和机遇。
