Dipole field in nitrogen-enriched carbon nitride with external forces to boost the artificial photosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide

Abstract Artificial photosynthesis is a promising strategy for efficient hydrogen peroxide production, but the poor directional charge transfer from bulk to active sites restricts the overall photocatalytic efficiency. To address this, a new process of dipole field-driven spontaneous polarization in nitrogen-rich triazole-based carbon nitride (C 3 N 5 ) to harness photogenerated charge kinetics for hydrogen peroxide production is constructed. Here, C 3 N 5 achieves a hydrogen peroxide photosynthesis rate of 3809.5 µmol g −1 h −1 and a 2e − transfer selectivity of 92% under simulated sunlight and ultrasonic forces. This high performance is attributed to the introduction of rich nitrogen active sites of the triazole ring in C 3 N 5 , which brings a dipole field. This dipole field induces a spontaneous polarization field to accelerate a rapid directional electron transfer process to nitrogen active sites and therefore induces Pauling-type adsorption of oxygen through an indirect 2e − transfer pathway to form hydrogen peroxide. This innovative concept using a dipole field to harness the migration and transport of photogenerated carriers provides a new route to improve photosynthesis efficiency via structural engineering.