Enhanced Charge Transfer in Poly(Heptazine Imide) Synergistically Induced by Donor-Acceptor Motifs and Ohmic Junctions for Efficient Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction.

Abstract

Poly(heptazine imide) (PHI) has received widely interest in the photocatalytic CO2 reduction due to its good crystallinity and complete in-plane structure. However, its poor photo-induced carrier separation and migration efficiency and insufficient active sites results in undesirable photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance. Herein, we designed and constructed a novel ohmic junction photocatalyst by integrating melamine edge-modified PHI (mel-PHI) with extended π-conjugated system with TiN (TiN/mel-PHI) for enhancing the photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity. Strikingly, the photocayalytic CO2 reduction yield of the optimal TiN/mel-PHI is 62.64 µmol·g-1·h-1, which is 5.6 and 2.8 times higher than PHI (11.26 µmol·g-1·h-1) and mel-PHI (22.32 µmol·g-1·h-1), respectively. The superior photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity is attributed not only to the formation of D-A structure by the introduction of melamine, which extends the π-conjugation system, alters the electronic structure of PHI, and accelerates the charge separation and migration, but also to the induced internal electric field by ohmic junction further enhances the charge separation and migration efficiency. Meanwhile, the synergistic effect of mel-PHI and TiN enriched the electron number of TiN, reducing the CO2 reduction potential. This work highlights the synergistic enhancement of charge transfer between D-A motifs and ohmic junctions, confirming their potential in optimizing photocatalysts.