Dipole field in nitrogen-enriched carbon nitride with external forces to boost the artificial photosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37717005.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-41522-0 and PMC identifier 10505161.
- 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
Artificial photosynthesis is a promising strategy for efficient hydrogen peroxide production, but the poor directional charge transfer from bulk to active sites restricts the overall photocatalytic efficiency. To address this, a new process of dipole field-driven spontaneous polarization in nitrogen-rich triazole-based carbon nitride (C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>5</sub>) to harness photogenerated charge kinetics for hydrogen peroxide production is constructed. Here, C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>5</sub> achieves a hydrogen peroxide photosynthesis rate of 3809.5 µmol g<sup>-1</sup> h<sup>-1</sup> and a 2e<sup>-</sup> transfer selectivity of 92% under simulated sunlight and ultrasonic forces. This high performance is attributed to the introduction of rich nitrogen active sites of the triazole ring in C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>5</sub>, which brings a dipole field. This dipole field induces a spontaneous polarization field to accelerate a rapid directional electron transfer process to nitrogen active sites and therefore induces Pauling-type adsorption of oxygen through an indirect 2e<sup>-</sup> transfer pathway to form hydrogen peroxide. This innovative concept using a dipole field to harness the migration and transport of photogenerated carriers provides a new route to improve photosynthesis efficiency via structural engineering.