Unlocking bimetallic active sites via a desalination strategy for photocatalytic reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35443754.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-29671-0 and PMC identifier 9021305.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) metal oxyhalides exhibit outstanding photocatalytic properties with unique electronic and interfacial structures. Compared with monometallic oxyhalides, bimetallic oxyhalides are less explored. In this work, we have developed a novel top-down wet-chemistry desalination approach to remove the alkali-halide salt layer within the complicated precursor bulk structural matrix Pb<sub>0.6</sub>Bi<sub>1.4</sub>Cs<sub>0.6</sub>O<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>2</sub>, and successfully fabricate a new 2D ultrathin bimetallic oxyhalide Pb<sub>0.6</sub>Bi<sub>1.4</sub>O<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>1.4</sub>. The unlocked larger surface area, rich bimetallic active sites, and faster carrier dynamics within Pb<sub>0.6</sub>Bi<sub>1.4</sub>O<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub>1.4</sub> layers significantly enhance the photocatalytic efficiency for atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> reduction. It outperforms the corresponding parental matrix phase and other state-of-the-art bismuth-based monometallic oxyhalides photocatalysts. This work reports a top-down desalination strategy to engineering ultrathin bimetallic 2D material for photocatalytic atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> reduction, which sheds light on further constructing other ultrathin 2D catalysts for environmental and energy applications from similar complicate structure matrixes.