Construction of frustrated Lewis pairs on TiO2-x derived from perovskite for enhanced photocatalytic CO2 reduction

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2022-01, Vol.427, p.131554, Article 131554
• Main Authors: Jia, Changchao, Kan, Xiaonan, Zhang, Xia, Lin, Gang, Liu, Wengang, Wang, Zhiyuan, Zhu, Shaoqi, Ju, Dianxing, Liu, Jian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CO2 reduction; Frustrated Lewis pairs; Photocatalyst; TiO2; Topological transformation
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2021.131554

[Display omitted] •FLPs are successfully constructed on anatase TiO2-x hierarchical hollow boxes.•FLPs on TiO2-x exhibit an outstanding ability for adsorption and activation of CO2.•CO2 reduction is carried out in the absence of sacrificial agents and cocatalysts.•TiO2-x with FLPs exhibits an excellent CO production rate (65.1 μmol g-1h−1). Exploring high-efficiency photocatalysts to promote CO2 reduction into high value-added products is of great significance. However, the weak adsorption and activation ability for CO2 hampers the efficiency of photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Herein, hierarchical hollow TiO2-x boxes with frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) are successfully fabricated by in situ topological transformation of perovskite microcubes. The FLPs on TiO2-x surface are constructed with the OVs (Lewis acid sites) and its proximal surface hydroxyls (Lewis base sites). TiO2-x hollow boxes with FLPs show an excellent CO production rate (65.1 μmol g-1h−1) in pure water without any sacrificial agents or cocatalysts, which is 19.1 times and 36.6 times higher than those of TiO2 without FLPs and commercial TiO2 P25, respectively. This work presents a novel strategy to construct FLPs through in situ topological transformation route and also shows great promise for the future design of high-performance CO2 reduction photocatalysts.