Zirconium induced surfaces frustrated Lewis acid-base pairs for BiOBr boosting CO2 photoreduction

Conversion of CO2 to carbon-based fuels via photocatalytic reduction, as a prospective approach, could alleviate energy shortages and environmental problems. However, the adsorption and activation of CO2 in the process of photocatalytic CO2 reduction are still great challenge. Herein, Zr isomorphous substituted BiOBr catalyst with surface frustrated Lewis acid-base pairs (SFLPs) are formed by a convenient chemical method. The photocatalytic activity of CO2 reduction for optimal Zr-BiOBr is significantly improved, with CO yield of 185.7 μmol·g-1·h-1 and CH4 of 0.7 μmol·g-1·h-1, being 9.2 - fold and 3.2 - fold higher than that of original BiOBr, respectively. It is found that zirconium is considered as Lewis acid site and lattice oxygen as Lewis base site, which could effectively boost the adsorption and activiation of CO2 molecules. This work not only demonstrates that construction of SFLPs for catalyst could be taken as an effective tactics for CO2 adsorption and activation, but also suggests a possible photocatalytic mechanism in depth.