Atomically dispersed Co sites on BiOCl nanosheets for efficient CO2 photoreduction

Efficient CO 2 photoreduction to produce fuel remains a great challenge, due to the fast recombination of photogenerated charge carriers and the lack of effective reactive sites in the developed photocatalysts. Herein, single Co atoms (Co SA ) were highly dispersed on hydrothermally synthesized BiOCl nanosheets (BOC) by a facile two-step electrostatic self-assembly and pyrolysis method. The obtained Co SA -BOC could be performed for efficient CO 2 photoreduction to stoichiometrically produce CO and O 2 at the ratio of 2:1, with the CO evolution rate reaching 45.93 μmol g −1 h −1 , ∼4 times that of the pristine BOC. This distinctly improved photocatalytic performance for Co SA -BOC should benefit from the introduction of atomically dispersed Co–O 4 coordination structures, which could accelerate the migration of photogenerated charge carriers to surface by creating an impurity energy level in the forbidden band, and act as the reactive sites to deliver the photogenerated electrons to activate CO 2 molecules for CO production. This work provides a facile and reliable strategy to highly disperse single atoms on low-dimensional semiconductors for efficient CO 2 photoreduction to selectively produce CO. Single Co atoms were highly dispersed on BiOCl nanosheets to achieve a distinctly improved photocatalytic activity for CO 2 photoreduction, with CO evolution rate ∼4 times that of the pristine BiOCl nanosheets, attributed to the introduced Co–O 4 coordination structures accelerating charge separation and activating CO 2 molecules for CO production. • Single Co atoms were highly dispersed on BiOCl nanosheets for efficient CO 2 photoreduction by a facile two-step method. • Co SA -BiOCl exhibits an excellent photocatalytic performance with CO evolution rate reaching 45.93 μmol g −1 h −1 . • The Co–O 4 coordination structures could accelerate the separation of photogenerated charge carriers and activate CO 2 molecules.