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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Developing Photosensitizer-Cobaloxime Hybrids for Solar-Driven H2 Production in Aqueous Aerobic Conditions
Published on: October 5, 2019
Dynamic Dual-Site Relay Catalysis Enables Selective Solar-Driven CO2 Reduction Toward Ethanol
Shuaiqi Gong1,2, Chuxiong Zhou1, Xiaoyang He3
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Materials Protection and Advanced Materials in Electric Power, Shanghai University of Electric Power, Shanghai, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Photocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethanol (C2H5OH) offers a sustainable carbon recycling route but is limited by inefficient C-C coupling under visible light irradiation. Here, we report a defect-engineered WO3-x/InSAs (SAs, single atoms) photocatalyst with a dynamic dual-site relay mechanism, where electron-rich W-VO (VO, oxygen-vacancy) and electron-deficient In single atom sites cooperatively drive selective ethanol synthesis. The W-VO site acts as a persistent *CO supply hub for CO2-to-*CO conversion, while In site functions as an ethanol-selective coupling center for targeted *CO-*CO coupling. This relay enables exceptional ethanol production and high selectivity (97.43% electrons selectivity and 86.35% yield-based selectivity). Notably, the photocatalyst maintains efficient CO2-to-ethanol conversion efficiency under natural sunlight illumination in scaled-up experiments using a reactor equipped with a 20 × 20 cm2 plate coated with WO3-x/InSAs. Combined in situ spectroscopy and DFT calculations reveal that W-VO orchestrates CO2-to-*CO feeding and relays electrons to InSAs, reducing the C-C coupling barrier via asymmetric electron distribution. Electron-trapping at oxyphilic In stabilizes *CO via O-lone-pair donation; subsequent W d-orbital hybridization anchors *OCCO, dictating ethanol selectivity. Our work provides a design strategy for efficient photogenerated carrier utilization in CO2-to-ethanol conversion, with implications for scalable solar fuel synthesis.
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