Ligand Defect-Induced Active Sites in Ni-MOF-74 for Efficient Photocatalytic CO Reduction to CO.

The conversion of CO into valuable carbon-based products using clean and renewable solar energy has been a significant challenge in photocatalysis. It is of paramount importance to develop efficient photocatalysts for the catalytic conversion of CO using visible light. In this study, the Ni-MOF-74 material is successfully modified to achieve a highly porous structure (Ni-74-Am) through temperature and solvent modulation. Compared to the original Ni-MOF-74, Ni-74-Am contains more unsaturated Ni active sites resulting from defects, thereby enhancing the performance of CO photocatalytic conversion. Remarkably, Ni-74-Am exhibits outstanding photocatalytic performance, with a CO generation rate of 1380 µmol g h and 94% CO selectivity under visible light, significantly surpassing the majority of MOF-based photocatalysts reported to date. Furthermore, experimental characterizations reveal that Ni-74-Am has significantly higher efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole separation and faster carrier migration rate for photocatalytic CO reduction. This work enriches the design and application of defective MOFs and provides new insights into the design of MOF-based photocatalysts for renewable energy and environmental sustainability. The findings of this study hold significant promise for developing efficient photocatalysts for CO reduction under visible-light conditions.