Chiral Mesostructured Mo Doped Bi₂WO₆ Drives Photocatalytic Urea Synthesis From N₂ and CO₂

Direct synthesis of urea through photocatalytic N₂ and CO₂ reduction (PNCR) offers a sustainable approach to mitigate CO₂ emissions and reduce energy consumption from urea production for industry and agriculture. However, achieving high yield of urea is limited by the high energy barrier for co-reduction of N₂ and CO₂ with subsequent C-N coupling. Herein, we propose that the spin polarization of chiral mesostructured Mo doped Bi₂WO₆ (CMMB) can facilitate the formation of triplet ³NOH by regulating the parallel electron spin alignment and promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated carriers, leading to enhanced C-N formation. The incorporation of Mo sites into Bi₂WO₆ promotes the adsorption and activation of N₂. A state-of-the-art urea yield was achieved without additives via PNCR on CMMB, surpassing the best-reported inorganic catalyst by a significant margin. This study provides an effective strategy for designing catalyst structures for the green synthesis of organonitrogen compounds.