Authors: Shuai Yue, Guobin Xiao, Qiujin Shi, Xijiao Mu, Manke Zhang, Mingzheng Xie, Jing Cao
Published: 2025-05-02
Source: Full article
AbstractAs a promising technology with both environmental and economic benefits, photocatalytic CO2 conversion relies heavily on photo‐carrier transport properties. However, oxide photocatalysts often face a significant limitation due to their restricted carrier transport distances, typically below 100 nm. Here, a surface electric field regulation strategy is proposed that enhances carrier transport in metal oxide photocatalysts by integrating specific porphyrin supramolecular assemblies. Through spin‐coating, monoamine metal porphyrin assemblies are uniformly deposited on the BiVO4 photocatalyst via van der Waals interactions. The electronic coupling between amine groups and Co atoms in adjacent porphyrin units generates unoccupied orbitals, which facilitate the accumulation of holes within the Co‐porphyrin supramolecular system. This coupling induces interfacial electron redistribution and charge density reorganization, creating an intense surface electric field on BiVO4 with an intensity of 17.4 V m−1. As a result, the mobility of photo‐carriers within BiVO4 is significantly enhanced, extending the hole diffusion length from 46.7 to 232.9 nm and enabling more efficient charge extraction at the surface. This improvement results in a 7.3‐fold increase in the photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance, achieving an external quantum efficiency of 1.86%. The proposed approach offers a generalizable method for enhancing photo‐carrier properties in photocatalytic systems.