Asymmetric Electron Redistribution in Niobic-Oxygen Vacancy Associates to Tune Non-Covalent Interaction in CO2 Photoreduction

The role of vacancy associates in photocatalytic CO2 reduction is an open question. Herein, the Nb-O vacancy associates (VNb-O ) are engineered into niobic acid (NA) atomic layers to tailor the CO2 photoreduction performance. The intrinsic charge compensation from O to Nb around Nb-O vacancy associates could manipulate the active electronic states, leading to the asymmetric electron redistribution. This local symmetry breaking sites will show a charge density gradient, forming a localized polarization field to polarize non-polar CO2 molecules and tune the non-covalent interaction of reaction intermediates. This unique configuration contributed to the 9.3 times increased activity for photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Meantime, this VNb-O NA also show excellent photocatalytic activity for NO3 - -NH4 + synthesis, with NH4 + formation rate up to 3442 µmol g-1 h-1 . This work supplies fresh insights into the vacancy associates design for electron redistribution and non-covalent interaction tuning in photocatalysis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.