Rare-Earth Single Erbium Atoms for Enhanced Photocatalytic CO Reduction.

The solar-driven photocatalytic reduction of CO (CO RR) into chemical fuels is a promising route to enrich energy supplies and mitigate CO emissions. However, low catalytic efficiency and poor selectivity, especially in a pure-water system, hinder the development of photocatalytic CO 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 /CN-NT) with a tunable dispersion density of single atoms. Er /CN-NT is a highly efficient and robust photocatalyst that exhibits outstanding CO 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 RR.