Engineering Single-Atom Active Sites on Covalent Organic Frameworks for Boosting CO2 Photoreduction

Solar carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion is an emerging solution to meet the challenges of sustainable energy systems and environmental/climate concerns. However, the construction of isolated active sites not only influences catalytic activity but also limits the understanding of the structure–catalyst relationship of CO2 reduction. Herein, we develop a universal synthetic protocol to fabricate different single-atom metal sites (e.g., Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Cu, Mn, and Ru) anchored on the triazine-based covalent organic framework (SAS/Tr-COF) backbone with the bridging structure of metal–nitrogen–chlorine for high-performance catalytic CO2 reduction. Remarkably, the as-synthesized Fe SAS/Tr-COF as a representative catalyst achieved an impressive CO generation rate as high as 980.3 μmol g–1 h–1 and a selectivity of 96.4%, over approximately 26 times higher than that of the pristine Tr-COF under visible light irradiation. From X-ray absorption fine structure analysis and density functional theory calculations, the superior photocatalytic performance is attributed to the synergic effect of atomically dispersed metal sites and Tr-COF host, decreasing the reaction energy barriers for the formation of *COOH intermediates and promoting CO2 adsorption and activation as well as CO desorption. This work not only affords rational design of state-of-the-art catalysts at the molecular level but also provides in-depth insights for efficient CO2 conversion.