Recent advances of low-dimensional phosphorus-based nanomaterials for solar-driven photocatalytic reactions

Photocatalysis based on semiconductors has been regarded as a feasible solution for realizing sustainable solar-to-chemical conversion. As one important member in the family of photocatalysts, phosphorus-based materials demonstrate promising activity with unique features related to the chemical state of P, which have attracted increasing attention for various photocatalytic reactions. Recently, tailoring phosphorus-based materials into lower dimension shows great potential for further ameliorating the inherent light absorption and surface reaction sites. Significant efforts have been devoted onto the synthetic methods, surface modification and hybridization of low-dimensional phosphorus-based nanomaterials to achieve improved photocatalytic performance. In this review, an overview of recent advances in exploring low-dimensional phosphorus-based nanomaterials including elemental phosphorus, transition metal phosphide, metal phosphate, metal phosphorus trichalcogenides, and P-doped materials for efficient solar-driven photocatalytic reactions is provided. The state-of-art nanostructure designation strategies as well as surface chemistry engineering and new insights into the reaction mechanism over low-dimensional phosphorus-based nanomaterials have been summarized. By addressing the intrinsic physical and chemical characteristics, the applications of low-dimensional phosphorus-based nanomaterials into H2 evolution, CO2 reduction, pollutant degradation, photo-oxidation, and disinfection have been discussed in detail. Finally, the remaining challenges and some prospects for low-dimensional phosphorus-based nanomaterials are discussed.