Solar-driven CO
2 reduction now is a promising technology to solve the environmental problem and energy crisis [
1,
2]. The carbon-contained products were various, and among them, carbon monoxide (CO) is a momentous constituent for bulk chemical manufacturing. Therefore, the photocatalytic CO
2-to-CO conversion with high activity and selectivity is highly sought after. However, the dissociation energy of the C═O bond in CO
2 molecules is as high as 750 kJ/mol, which makes the CO
2 photoreduction an arduous reaction [
3,
4]. Up to now, the reported CO yields and selectivity in CO
2 photoreduction reaction were relatively low [
5,
6], which greatly restricted the application of solar-driven CO
2 reduction technology. Seeking a high-performance photocatalyst for CO
2-to-CO directional conversion is the hotspot and difficulty in the photocatalytic field.
Recently, bismuth-based materials, such as Bi
2O
3 [
7,
8], BiOBr [
9,
10], BiOI
3 [
11,
12], and BiOCl [
13,
14], have been proved to be promising photocatalysts for their unique electronic structures and layered crystal structures. Among them, BiOCl has received widespread attention [
15–
17]. However, its solar-to-fuel efficiency is restricted greatly by its wide band gap. Various strategies have been tried to improve the photocatalytic activity of BiOCl, such as exposed facets regulation [
18–
20], heterojunction configuration [
21,
22], (non)metal doping [
23,
24], and so on. Recently, studies have suggested that introducing oxygen vacancies in heterojunction structure can efficiently promote the photocatalytic performance [
25–
27]. Nevertheless, despite considerable efforts devoted to improving the performances of BiOCl-based heterojunction photocatalysts, the intrinsic mechanisms currently remain ambiguous.
In CO
2 photoreduction reaction, the ultimate photocatalytic performance is a result of multiple factors working together, such as the photocarrier-separation efficiency, the adsorption type of CO
2 molecules, the activation energy of CO
2 molecules, and the
*CO intermediates formation energy. Studies have shown that affected by the reaction environment, the surface structure and interface structure of photocatalysts were dynamically changing [
28,
29], which caused the changes in surface atomic configuration, electronic structure, and spatial distribution of active sites. For instance, by the selective photo-deposition of PtO
x species on BiOIO
3 surface, under light irradiation, the surface adsorbed CO
2 molecules transformed into
*CO intermediates, leading to the emergence of Bi
3+ species and the expansion of crystalline structure of BiOIO
3 nanocrystals [
12]. Furthermore, the Pt
1-ZnIn₂S₄@CoO
x system underwent a hole-induced oxidative self-reconstruction of CoO
x, which continuously scavenged photogenerated holes and effectively suppressed photocorrosion. Consequently, it achieved hydrogen evolution rates of 23.88 mmol g
−1 h
−1 in natural seawater and 48.99 mmol g
−1 h
−1 in deionized water [
30]. Therefore, investigating the dynamic evolutions of crystal structure of BiOCl-based materials in CO
2 photoreduction process and its fluence on the photocatalytic activity is a reasonable way to explore the essence of CO
2 photoreduction reaction, which is also beneficial for the rational designs of efficient CO
2 reduction photocatalysts.
Herein, by adopting quasi in-situ characterization techniques, we explored the dynamic structure and chemical-state variations on BiO1-xCl/C3N5 in CO2 photoreduction process with BiO1-xCl and BiOCl/C3N5 counterparts for comparison. The related studies clearly revealed that in BiO1-XCl/C3N5, electron offset could efficiently be promoted from interfacial N atoms to Bi atoms, inducing intimate interface contact and strengthening the adsorption of CO2 molecules. It resulted in the low oxidation state Bi atoms and the local contraction of BiO1-xCl structures. Under light irradiation, the interface interaction was further enhanced, which promoted the activation of CO2 molecule and the interfacial electron transport. Owing to the photoinduced electrons enrichment on interface Bi sites, the adsorbed CO2 molecules were transformed into *CO intermediates with the expansion of crystalline structures. As expected, BiO1-xCl/C3N5 exhibited the highest CO2-to-CO conversion performance in comparison to BiO1-xCl and BiOCl/C3N5. These findings might provide a feasible strategy to elucidate the dynamic evolution process of catalytically active sites for the significantly enhanced CO2-to-CO directional conversion, which offers new insights for the fabrication of highly efficient CO2 photo-reduction catalysts.
BiO
1-xCl was prepared
via a simple hydrothermal process [
31]. Bi(NO
3)
3·5H
2O (1 g) was first dissolved in 25 mL of ethylene glycol and stirred for 30 min to ensure the complete dissolution. After that, 5 mL of saturated NaCl solution was added. After stirring for another 60 min, the mixture was transferred into a 100 mL hydrothermal autoclave and kept at 160 ℃ for 5 h. The BiO
1-xCl product was collected after washing, centrifugation, and freeze-dried treatment.
5-Amino-1,2,4-triazole (5 g) and NH4Cl (5 g) were milled to form an inhomogeneous solid mixture and then was treated at 550 ℃ for 3 h with a heating rate of 10 ℃/min. The product was naturally cooled and the obtained sample was bulk C3N5.
Bulk C3N5 (1 g) was processed into 40 mL of concentrated H2SO4 with continuous stirring for 12 h. The yellowish product was washed to neutral by deionized water and then dried under vacuum at 60 ℃ for 12 h.
The synthesis procedure of BiO1-xCl/C3N5 was similar to that of BiO1-xCl, except a certain amount of prepared C3N5 nanosheets was injected into the mixture solution of Bi(NO3)3·5H2O and ethylene glycol.
Sample morphology was measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM, FEI Tecnai TF20). XRD pattern was collected by X'Pert PRO, PANalytical with a scanning rate of 0.06°/s. The chemical valence and elemental composition of the catalyst surface were determined by ESCALAB 250 Xi X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra were characterized on a UV-2550 (Shimadzu) spectrometer. Both steady and time-resolved Photoluminescence (PL) spectra were recorded on Fluorescence Spectrophotometer F-7000 and HORIBA FL-3, respectively. EPR measurements were recorded using Bruker EMX nano.
The synchronous irradiation X-ray diffraction (SI-XRD) was performed using a 300 W xenon lamp as the light source to record XRD data before and after CO2 adsorption as well as light irradiation. The CO2-preadsorption process was presented in Fig. S1 (Supporting information). Specially, after being made into thin sheets with suitable size, the photocatalyst was placed in a sealed adsorption chamber and purged with Ar (50 mL/min) for 30 min to remove the surface adsorbed impurities. Subsequently, a mixture gas of CO2 and water vapor was introduced into adsorption chamber for 60 min. Finally, the import valve and export valve of sealed chamber were closed and kept it for 60 min at room temperature to reach the adsorption equilibrium.
In-situ diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (SI-DRIFTS) was carried out on a Bruker VERTEX 70 infrared spectrometer with a 300 W Xe lamp (PLS-SXE300, Perfectlight Technology Co, Ltd., Beijing) as light source. A mixed atmosphere (CO2 + H2O vapor) was injected into the reactor for 30 min at room temperature. After reaching the sorption equilibrium, SI-DRIFTS data were recorded under alternating dark and light conditions.
Synchronous irradiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SI-XPS): The synchronous irradiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SI-XPS) instrument was equipped with a 300 W Xe lamp as light source. Before SI-XPS measurements, after being made into thin sheets with suitable size, the photocatalyst was placed in a sealed adsorption chamber and purged with Ar (50 mL/min) at 120 ℃ for 30 min to remove the surface adsorbed impurities. Subsequently, a CO2/H2O (vapor) was purged into the chamber at room temperature for 20 min to reach the adsorption equilibrium. Finally, the as-prepared samples were quickly transferred to the analysis chamber of XPS instrument (ESCALAB 250Xi) for the SI-XPS measurements. The variations of XPS spectra were recorded by controlling light irradiation (on or off). The CO2-preadsorption process was presented in Fig. S1.
The photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity was carried out under the irradiation of 300 W Xe lamp (PLS-SXE300, Perfectlight Technology Co, Ltd., Beijing) equipped with a 420 nm cutoff filter (Perfect Light, Microsolar 300, 420–780 nm). In a typical reaction, 100 mg samples were dispersed uniformly in pure water. The hybrid suspension was then transferred into the tailor-made vessel. Before irradiation, ultrahigh purity CO2 (99.999%) gas was bubbled into the suspension at 300 mL/min for 30 min to remove air and saturate the solution. The reactor temperature was kept at 25 ℃ with a cooling water circulator. After 5 h magnetic stirring under light irradiation, the suspension was centrifuged to collect the catalyst. The products were analyzed using Agilent GC 6890 N gas chromatograph with thermal conductivity and flame ionization detectors.
For comparison, the CO2 photoreduction performance with sacrificial reagent MeCN addition was also carried out. The testing procedure was similar with MeCN solution replacing pure water.
In isotopic labeling experiment, 13CO2 gas was employed instead of 12CO2 gas as the carbon source, and H218O was utilized instead of H216O. The gas products were measured by GC–MS spectrometry.
The photoelectrochemical data were all measured by a three-electrode photoelectrochemical cell with sample photoelectrode as working electrode, Pt sheet as counter electrode, and Ag/AgCl as reference electrode. Additionally, the electrolyte solution and light source were 0.2 mol/L Na2SO4 (pH 6.8) solution and 300 W xenon lamp, respectively. The working electrode was prepared as following: Catalyst powder (5 mg) was dispersed into 250 μL of isopropanol, 750 μL of H2O and 20 μL 5% Nafion, and then sonicated for 30 min. 50 μL of the sample mixture was drop-coated onto FTO glass and dried at 60 ℃ to obtain working electrode.
All DFT calculations data was obtained by using the Quantum Espresso code [
32]. The exchange-correlation energy was approximated by the generalized gradient approximation with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) functional. A 500 eV plane-wave kinetic energy cutoff was chosen. Geometry optimization was conducted with the Brillouin zone. The atomic positions were fully relaxed until a maximum energy difference and residual force on atoms, respectively. The vacuum slab of 15 Å was added to prevent the periodic interference of the unit cell.
Fig. 1a illustrated the basic synthetic procedure for
in-situ growth of oxygen vacancies BiOCl on C
3N
5 nanosheets (BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5). As a new type of N-rich carbon nitride, C
3N
5 was chosen for its azo-linked structure, which has been proven to be ideal support to metal atoms. Additionally, it exhibited a enhanced visible-light response to provide photo-generated charge carriers [
33]. Briefly, C
3N
5 nanosheets have been obtained by previously reported method [
34], which were subsequently used as the
in-situ growth substrate for BiO
1-xCl nanoparticles. The XRD pattern of C
3N
5 presented a main characteristic peak at 27° (
Fig. 1b) [
33]. The absence of a (100) peak, a specific feature of in-plane packing, suggests the distortion of C
3N
5 framework and the broadening of nanochannel distance between heptazine units due to azo (–N═N–) bridging linkage [
33,
35,
36]. Also, both BiOCl and BiO
1-xCl were the tetragonal structure (JCPDS No 06-0249) (
Fig. 1b and Fig. S2 in Supporting information). Notably, the oxygen vacancies treatment did not damage the crystalline structure of BiOCl. In BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 heterojunction, the XRD peaks of BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 were clearly observed. As shown in
Fig. 1,
Fig. 1, BiO
1-XCl nanosheets were junctionalized with C
3N
5, confirming the formation of heterojunction structure. The spacing value of 0.275 nm was assigned to the BiO
1-xCl (110) plane (
Fig. 1e), which showed an obvious boundary line with C
3N
5 (
Fig. 1e). The uniformly distributed C, O, Bi, Cl, and N elements were the directional evidence for the tight heterojunction interface between BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 (
Fig. 1f).
The defective nature of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was verified
via EPR spectra (
Fig. 1g). Usually, the typical peak of vacancies at
g = 2.004 was the signal for oxygen vacancies [
37,
38]. In comparison of BiOCl, BiO
1-xCl showed a stronger signal, indicating the successful introduction of oxygen vacancies [
13]. Interestingly, the intensity of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 showed no obvious different to that of BiO
1-xCl, probably due to the absence of the authentic bonding effect between BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 components. The result of Raman spectra further proved the existence of oxygen vacancies in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5. As shown in
Fig. 1h, BiOCl showed the characteristic peaks at 61, 143, 198, and 397 cm
−1, which were assigned to active modes of A
1g, A
1g, B
1g, and 2Eg, respectively [
39]. These peaks of BiO
1-xCl were much weaker and slightly shifted to lower wavenumbers direction, suggesting the existence of abundant oxygen vacancies and metallic Bi [
40]. The combination of C
3N
5 component did not change the oxygen vacancy concentration for the no obvious change peak intensities in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5.
The XPS survey spectra of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 consisted of Bi, O, Cl, C, and N elements (Fig. S3 and Table S1 in Supporting information), suggesting the heterojunction structure of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5.
Fig. 2a presented the O 1s spectra. For BiO
1-XCl, the peak at 529.8 eV was the crystal lattice O of [Bi
2O
2]
2+ crystal structure [
41,
42], and the peak at 531.9 eV originated from the oxygen vacancies [
43,
44]. The ~0.14 eV binding energy shifting between BiO
1-xCl and BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was from the interface interaction in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5. Similar conditions were also be detected on C 1s and Cl 2p spectra (Figs. S4 and S5 in Supporting information). Referring to
Fig. 2b, two peaks at 158.9 and 164.4 eV in BiO
1-xCl corresponded to Bi
3+ 4f
5/2 and 4f
7/2, respectively. While in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5, both peaks shifted down by ~0.16 eV for the increase in electron density of Bi atoms [
45]. Correspondingly, the N 1s exhibited an opposite change. In BiO
1-xCl, the peaks of two-coordinated (N2C) and three-coordinated (N3C) were detected at 398.5 and 399.8 eV, respectively (
Fig. 2c) [
33]. After constructing C
3N
5 component, these peaks shifted up by ~0.19 eV, indicating that the decrease in electron density in N nucleus. Thus, in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5, the electrons shifted from the N atoms to Bi atoms. The similar situation was not detected in BiOCl/C
3N
5 counterpoint (Figs. S6 and S7 in Supporting information). Nevertheless, no peaks belong to Bi-N bond was detected in both Bi 4f (163.4 eV) and N 1s (398.18 eV) XPS spectra [
46], which suggested in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 heterojunction, BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 was connected by the strong electrostatic effect [
47,
48]. In addition, with the introduction of high concentration oxygen vacancies, the band gap (
Eg) of BiO
1-xCl was narrowed to 2.81 eV from 3.44 eV of BiOCl, a distinctive feature of defect-containing semiconductors (
Fig. 2d and Fig. S8 in Supporting information) [
49]. Similarly, the
Eg of C
3N
5 was 2.19 eV. Moreover, the valence band potentials (
EVB) of C
3N
5 and BiO
1-xCl were determined by VB-XPS with light illumination (SI-VB XPS). The
EVB of C
3N
5 and BiO
1-xCl were 1.31 and 2.16 eV, respectively (
Fig. 2e). Meanwhile, the corresponding the
ECB of C
3N
5 and BiO
1-xCl were −0.88 and −0.65 eV, respectively. Based on the above analysis, the band structures of BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 were depicted in
Fig. 2f. It can be observed that BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 met simultaneously the thermodynamic conditions for CO
2 reduction and H
2O oxidization.
Meanwhile, the weight ratios of BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 heterojunction had great influence on the photocatalytic CO
2 conversion efficiency and CO selectivity. BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 with 20 wt% BiO
1-xCl loading showed the highest CO production rate (Fig. S9 in Supporting information) and selectivity (
Fig. 3a). The CO production rate of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was 207.3 μmol g
−1 h
−1 with a 96.1% selectivity (
Fig. 3a), which was a 5.4-fold enhancement compared to that of BiOCl/C
3N
5. However, there was still a small amount of CO produced under the Ar atmosphere (Fig. S10 in Supporting information), which may be caused by the self-decomposition of C
3N
5 or added surfactants [
50,
51]. With sacrificial reagent addition, the CO evolution rate reached 1096.32 μmol g
−1 h
−1 (Fig. S11 in Supporting information). Furthermore, the obtained photocatalytic performance of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was among the highest of reported works of Bi-based photocatalysis on CO
2 photoreduction to date (
Fig. 3b and Table S2 in Supporting information). Meanwhile, BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 also exhibited excellent photocatalytic stability and structure stability (
Fig. 3c, Figs. S12 and S13 in Supporting information)
Furthermore, the isotopic labeling experiment was conducted by using
13CO
2 as a carbon source. As shown in
Fig. 3d, the
13CO peak at
m/z = 29 and
13COOH peak at
m/z = 46 could be evidently detected in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 reaction system, confirming that CO should be produced from photocatalytic CO
2 reduction instead of impurities or pollutants [
52–
54]. Additionally, the oxidation products have also been explored through the H
218O isotopic labeling experiment. As illustrated in Fig. S14 (Supporting information),
18O (
m/z = 18) and
18O
2 (
m/z = 36) were simultaneously detected, indicating that the O
2 molecular product should be derived from water oxidation, which simultaneously provided electron/proton for CO
2 reduction into CO.
To investigate the origins of the photocatalytic performance, the electron dynamic behaviors were studied first. As shown in
Fig. 3e, BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 displayed the highest photocurrent density compared to BiO
1-xCl and BiOCl/C
3N
5, a result of the quicker charge transfer and separation rate after constructing the heterojunction. Meanwhile, similar conclusions were obtained from the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 performed with the minimum radius (
Fig. 3f), presenting that the fastest charge transfer rate and the lowest recombination ability of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 [
55–
57]. This was corroborated by the reduced photoluminescence (PL) intensity (
Fig. 3g), where BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 displayed significantly quenched signals compared to BiO
1-xCl and BiOCl/C
3N
5, highlighting suppressed electron-hole recombination [
58–
60]. To probe the specific charge transfer dynamics, the TRPL spectra were collected (
Fig. 3h and Table S3 in Supporting information). The lifetime decay curve was well fitted by a biexponential kinetic function (
R2 > 0.98). The average carrier lifetime (
τavg) of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was 6.55 ns, which was much longer than these of BiO
1-xCl (2.92 ns) and BiOCl/C
3N
5 (5.01 ns), indicating the lower recombination ratios during the charge carrier transfer process under the excitation state [
61,
62]. Note that the BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 showed a longer lifetime than BiOCl/C
3N
5, which maybe from the strong interface interaction, a main reason for the enhanced CO
2 photoreduction performance [
63,
64].
The effects of CO
2 absorption under darkness and light excitation on the structural evolution of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 heterojunction were explored by synchronous irradiation X-ray diffraction (SI-XRD) technique [
65]. As depicted in
Fig. 4a, the CO
2 adsorption on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 surface induced the evident shift of diffraction peaks toward the low D-spacing values, indicating that the shrinkage of crystalline structure owing to the electron deviated from BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 to CO
2 molecules. Similar phenomena could also be observed in BiOCl/C
3N
5 (
Fig. 4b) and BiO
1-xCl (
Fig. 4c), respectively. Moreover, under light irradiation, the diffraction peaks of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 shifted to the high D-spacing direction, indicating that the formed intermediates induced the changes of crystalline structure in reverse. Similar phenomenon could be observed in the BiOCl/C
3N
5 with a smaller shift amplitude. However, no evident change could be observed on BiO
1-XCl under light irradiation, revealing its relatively poor capability for the formation of reaction intermediates.
The reaction intermediates during CO
2 photoreduction were determined by synchronous irradiation diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (SI-DRIFTS). Under the darkness, compared to BiO
1-xCl and BiOCl/C
3N
5, BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 presented a much higher CO
2 adsorption peak (~2300–2400 cm
−1) and H
2O adsorption peak (~1600–1700 cm
−1) (Fig. S15 in Supporting information), which revealed that the surface of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was more favorable for the adsorption of CO
2 molecules [
66]. Upon light irradiation on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5, the peaks at 1504, 1531, and 1267 cm
−1 assigned to
*CO
2 intermediates could be evidently detected in
Fig. 4d. Interestingly, the emergence of
*COOH at 1698 cm
−1 indicated the protonation of
*CO
2 [
67,
68], which was the key for CO
2-to-CO conversion [
69,
70]. With increasing irradiation time, the peaks of
*CO intermediates could be detected evidently. By comparison, the
*CO peaks on BiO
1-xCl and BiOCl/C
3N
5 were much smaller, which confirmed the low CO production efficiencies of BiO
1-xCl and BiOCl/C
3N
5 (
Fig. 4e and f).
Moreover, the dynamic evolutions of chemical bonds and electronic structures of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 during CO
2 reduction process were studied
via synchronous irradiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SI-XPS) (
Fig. 5 and Table S4 in Supporting information) [
38,
71,
72]. After CO
2 absorption (
Fig. 5a), the peaks at 289.3 and 286.2 eV in C 1s XPS spectrum can be indexed to
*CO
2 and
*CO intermediates originating from the adsorption and dissociation of CO
2 molecules [
12]. Additionally, the slight peak at 290.8 eV indexed to carbonate species (CO
32−), which was consistent with the DRIFTS results. Simultaneously, two evident peaks at 166.7 and 166.0 eV in Bi 4f spectrum should be attributed to
*CO and
*CO
2 species on exposed Bi active sites (
Fig. 5b). Under light irradiation, the intensities of CO
32− and
*CO
2 peaks decreased evidently in C 1s region, while
*CO peak increased obviously, indicating the dissociation of CO
2 molecules. Simultaneously, an evident decrease in Bi-CO
2* peak accompanying with increase in Bi-CO
* peak was detected in Bi 4f spectrum. As illustrated in
Fig. 5c, the O 1s peaks can be fitted into six peaks at 534.7, 533.3, 532.2, 531.9, 531.5, and 530.4 eV, which were assigned to H
2O, O═C, OH, O
v, O–C, and lattice O, respectively. Upon light irradiation, the intensities of H
2O and O═C peaks decreased evidently, while OH and O–C peaks increased obviously, revealing the dissociation of CO
2 and H
2O molecules over the BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 surface. More importantly, all these chemical states and bond evolutions were dynamically reversible by controlling the light or dark conditions (
Figs. 5d–f). Furthermore, Ar ion etching has been performed to remove the adsorbed CO
2 molecules, and all the related changes have been disappeared (
Figs. 5g–i, Fig. S16 and Table S5 in Supporting information), further confirming the effects of adsorption and dissociation of CO
2 on the above chemical states and bond evolutions. For comparison, the related experiments of CO
2 adsorption have also been performed on BiO
1-xCl and BiOCl/C
3N
5, respectively. As illustrated in Figs. S17 and S18 (Supporting information), both BiO
1-xCl and BiOCl/C
3N
5 exhibited the relatively low CO
2 adsorption peaks compared with BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5, while no significant bond evolution could be detected, demonstrating the relatively poor CO
2 reduction capability. Therefore, the combination of C
3N
5 and BiO
1-xCl could effectively promote the adsorption of CO
2 molecules owing to the electron enrichment on Bi active sites. Under light illumination, the adsorbed
*CO
2 molecules were transformed into
*CO intermediates with the transformation of high oxidation state Bi atoms to Bi
3+.
Furthermore, the surface charge distribution has been investigated by surface photovoltage (SPV) measurements.
Fig. 5j confirmed that the light excitation induced the significant variations of surface potential, and the surface potential of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was >138 mV, which was much higher than these of BiOCl/C
3N
5 (~74 mV) and BiO
1-xCl (~32.5 mV) (
Fig. 5k and l). Therefore, BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 effectively promoted the charge separation, photoinduced electron migration, and CO
2 adsorption.
The radicals during CO
2 photoreduction are also the keys to unveil the reaction mechanism, which were investigated
via the
in-situ EPR spectra. As shown in
Figs. 6a and b, the drastically reduced TEMPO signal and the increased DMPO–OH signal demonstrated that BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 produced more photogenerated electrons and promoted more H
2O molecules dissociation under light illumination. When CO
2 was continually injected into BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 system, the TEMPO signal showed no obvious changes during irradiation (
Fig. 6c), suggesting that the photoinduced electrons were largely captured by CO
2 during photoreduction [
73]. Also, even though CO
2 was injected, no any DMPO–OH signal was detected in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 system under dark, while switching to light illumination, DMPO–OH signal appeared and was higher with the illumination time prolonging (
Fig. 6d), revealing the indispensable role of light in promoting water hydrolysis. Consequently, the CO
2 reduction process was promoted by the protons and photoinduced electrons (CO
2 + 2e
− + 2H
+ → CO + H
2O). As a result, the ample photoinduced electrons and protons endowed BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 favorable CO
2 photoreduction performance.
Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) experiments were performed to study the interactions between BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 and the reaction gases CO
2 and the product CO. The maximum CO
2 desorption temperature of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was 400.8 ℃, which was higher than these of BiO
1-xCl (346.1 ℃) and BiOCl/C
3N
5 (323.7 ℃), demonstrating the stronger interaction between CO
2 molecules and BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 (Fig. S19 in Supporting information). In contrast, BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 exhibited lower maximum CO desorption temperature (316.2 ℃) compared to BiO
1-xCl (350.2 ℃) and BiOCl/C
3N
5 (328.7 ℃) (Fig. S20 in Supporting information), which illustrated that the CO molecules were more easier to release from BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 [
16,
74]. Consequently, the CO
2-to-CO conversion was enhanced in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 system.
The interface interaction of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was studied theoretically with an electron introduction. As depicted in
Fig. 6e, compared to BiOCl/C
3N
5, the C
3N
5 component on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 deformed obviously with a deformation energy of −2.26 eV, almost twice that of BiOCl/C
3N
5 (−1.19 eV). The obvious deformation energy difference may originate from the amplified interfacial interaction. Additionally, as a result of the stronger interfacial interaction, the distance between BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 (2.31 Å) was shorter in comparison to that in BiOCl/C
3N
5 (2.79 Å), and the binding energy
Eb in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 (−4.03 eV) was much smaller than that in BiOCl/C
3N
5 (−2.91 eV), showing the stronger interfacial interaction between C
3N
5 and BiO
1-xCl (Fig. S21 in Supporting information).
Herein, the dynamic CO2 conversion on BiO1-xCl/C3N5 was simulated. To model CO2 adsorption on BiO1-xCl/C3N5, a CO2 molecule was placed above BiO1-xCls side. Five adsorption sites were designed (Fig. S22 in Supporting information), including Bi atom, Bi atom adjected Ov (Bi-Ov), O atom, Ov site, and Cl atom. Also, adsorption energy (Eads) was calculated as Eads = ECO2@BiO1-xCl/C3N5 − EBiO1-xCl/C3N5 − ECO2, where ECO2@BiO1-xCl/C3N5 was the CO2 adsorption energy on BiO1-xCl/C3N5. As a result, EBiO1-xCl/C3N5 and ECO2 referred to the energies of BiO1-xCl/C3N5 and a CO2 molecule, respectively. The Eads values for Bi, Bi-Ov, O, Ov, and Cl were −0.24, −0.32, −0.02, −0.14, and 0.15 eV, respectively. The Bi-Ov site was the most suitable site towards CO2 adsorption.
In order to identify the dynamic evolution of CO
2 molecule on Bi-O
v site, one electron was introduced into the calculation models. As illustrated in
Fig. 6f, after geometry optimization, the CO
2 molecule adsorbed on Bi-O
v site induced the deformation of BiO
1-xCl and C
3N
5 components in the interface, while there was no so obvious deformation in BiOCl/C
3N
5, implying the bigger interaction strength of CO
2 on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5. The CO
2 molecule adsorbed on BiOCl/C
3N
5 showed no obvious deformation with a distance of 2.81 Å on BiOCl layer. While on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5, the distance between CO
2 molecule and BiO
1-xCl layer was decreased to 2.53 Å. The CO
2 molecule distorted with O═C═O angle of 135.12°, and C and O atoms formed Bi–C and Bi–O bonds with Bi atoms. By introducing an electron, the C–O bond in Bi–O–C–Bi group was stretched from 1.18 Å to 1.33 Å and the O═C═O angle was reduced to 128.06
°, which indicated the approaching dissociation of CO
2 molecule [
16]. In summary, BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 enhanced the interaction between exposed Bi atoms and CO
2 molecules and then destructed the linear structure of CO
2 molecules, thereby achieving the efficient activation of CO
2 molecules.
From the energy aspect, the adsorption energy of CO
2 molecules on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 surface was bigger compared to these on BiOCl/C
3N
5 and BiO
1-xCl (
Fig. 6g), revealing that oxygen vacancies in BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 enhanced the interaction between electrons and CO
2. While the adsorption energies (
Ead*CO) of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was smaller than that of BiOCl/C
3N
5, which demonstrated that
*CO intermediates on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was easier to release (
Fig. 6h). Moreover, the free energy of H
2O dissociation on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was calculated to be
ca. −0.52 eV, which was smaller than these of BiOCl/C
3N
5 (1.55 eV) and BiO
1-xCl (−0.23 eV) (
Fig. 6i), confirming that the BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 accelerated H
2O dissociation and facilitated proton-feeding [
75]. Besides, the
*H acquisition ability of BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 provided the enough
*H for the formation of
*COOH intermediates, thereby enhancing the photocatalytic reduction process [
76].
Gibbs free energies of the CO
2 reduction elementary steps were performed (
Fig. 6j). Generally, in CO
2-to-CO conversion process, the
*COOH and
*CO intermediates were the keys [
77]. The
*COOH intermediates was first formed on Bi sites
via the process of
*CO
2 + H
+ +e
− →
*COOH, which was considered as the rate-determining step for the CO
2-to-CO conversion [
78]. The smallest
*COOH formation energy on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5 was from the compact heterojunction structure and optimized electron states. In the second hydrogenation step,
*COOH was converted into
*CO specie and remained absorbed on the catalyst surface. Owing to the negative energy for
*CO intermediates desorption, the adsorbed CO molecules were easily to form product CO rather than the products involved with more than two-electron processes (such as CH
3OH and CH
4). From the above analysis, the CO
2 reduction produced CO as the final product on BiO
1-xCl/C
3N
5.
Based on the above demonstrations, a potential mechanism has been proposed to clarify the charge separation, electron transport, structure and bond evolutions over BiO1-xCl/C3N5 during the photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Firstly, the strong interfacial interaction enriched the electrons on Bi sites, facilitating the CO2 molecules adsorption. Subsequently, the strong electron-attracting ability of absorbed CO2 molecules pushed up the oxidation state of Bi atoms and the shrinkage of BiO1-xCl/C3N5 crystalline structures. Upon light illumination, the photoinduced electron further strengthened the interaction between CO2 molecule and Bi active site, which efficiently destroyed the linear structure of CO2 molecule, facilitating *CO2 to form *COOH intermediates. Then, *COOH was further reduced to *CO via reacting with proton and photoinduced electron. Finally, the *CO desorbed and formed CO gas, accompanying with the restoration of the crystalline structures of BiO1-xCl/C3N5. Thus, the dynamic structure and chemical state evolutions of BiO1-xCl/C3N5 during photoreaction were the main reasons for the high CO2-to-CO conversion.
In summary, using BiO1-xCl/C3N5 as a model photocatalyst in CO2 reduction, we revealed the strong relationship between dynamic structure evolution and photocatalytic performance. More specifically, owing to the combination of C3N5 and BiO1-xCl, the interface electron enriched on Bi sites, which effectively promoted the adsorption of CO2 molecules. Under light illumination, at the joint action of photoinduced electrons and protons, the adsorbed structure-twisted CO2 molecules were transformed into *CO intermediates, leading to restoration of crystalline structure and valence state of Bi active sites. As expected, BiO1-xCl/C3N5 photocatalyst exhibited excellent CO2-to-CO conversion activity with an CO evolution rate of 207.3 μmol g−1 h−1. These findings might help to reveal the origin of photocatalytic performance of catalysts during CO2 conversion and provide a new insight to design efficient and stable photocatalysts for CO2 reduction.