Graphdiyne as a Hole‐Transport Channel in Carbon Nitride Heterojunctions for Synergistic CO <sub>2</sub> Reduction and <i>γ</i> ‐Butyrolactone Synthesis

ABSTRACT Coupling photocatalytic CO 2 reduction with organic oxidation promises enhanced solar energy conversion and atom economy but remains challenging due to the difficulty in orchestrating selective redox transformations while suppressing side reactions. Here, we report a metal‐free graphdiyne (GDY)/polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) heterojunction that achieves exceptional bifunctional performance in CO 2 reduction coupled with tetrahydrofuran oxidation to γ ‐butyrolactone. The optimized composite delivers a CO production rate of 55 µmol·h −1 ·g −1 with 95% selectivity, and a γ ‐butyrolactone yield of 54% with near‐unity selectivity (&gt; 99%) under mild photothermal conditions, representing 2.9‐fold and 6.8‐fold enhancements over thermally treated PCN, respectively. Mechanistic investigations reveal that GDY serves as a hole‐transport layer, generating a built‐in electric field that drives spatial separation of charge carriers. This configuration confines electrons on PCN for CO 2 reduction while directing holes to GDY for tetrahydrofuran activation. Moreover, the metal‐free heterojunction suppresses over‐oxidation pathways that plague metal‐loaded systems, enabling remarkable selectivity control. This work establishes the GDY/PCN heterojunction as a powerful platform for cooperative photoredox catalysis and provides a blueprint for designing metal‐free heterojunctions toward sustainable synthesis.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie
Published
2026-05-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.3147768
Primary Topic
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Graphdiyne as a Hole‐Transport Channel in Carbon Nitride Heterojunctions for Synergistic CO 2 Reduction and γ ‐Butyrolactone Synthesis

Jimmy C. Yu, Xi Zhang, Oleksandr Savateev, Junqi Chai et al.
Angewandte Chemie
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
article

Graphdiyne as a Hole‐Transport Channel in Carbon Nitride Heterojunctions for Synergistic CO 2 Reduction and γ ‐Butyrolactone Synthesis

Jimmy C. Yu, Xi Zhang, Oleksandr Savateev, Junqi Chai, Chong Wang, Wei Lin, Jing Tang, Jiajia Cheng
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Coupling photocatalytic CO 2 reduction with organic oxidation promises enhanced solar energy conversion and atom economy but remains challenging due to the difficulty in orchestrating selective redox transformations while suppressing side reactions. Here, we report a metal‐free graphdiyne (GDY)/polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) heterojunction that achieves exceptional bifunctional performance in CO 2 reduction coupled with tetrahydrofuran oxidation to γ ‐butyrolactone. The optimized composite delivers a CO production rate of 55 µmol·h −1 ·g −1 with 95% selectivity, and a γ ‐butyrolactone yield of 54% with near‐unity selectivity (&gt; 99%) under mild photothermal conditions, representing 2.9‐fold and 6.8‐fold enhancements over thermally treated PCN, respectively. Mechanistic investigations reveal that GDY serves as a hole‐transport layer, generating a built‐in electric field that drives spatial separation of charge carriers. This configuration confines electrons on PCN for CO 2 reduction while directing holes to GDY for tetrahydrofuran activation. Moreover, the metal‐free heterojunction suppresses over‐oxidation pathways that plague metal‐loaded systems, enabling remarkable selectivity control. This work establishes the GDY/PCN heterojunction as a powerful platform for cooperative photoredox catalysis and provides a blueprint for designing metal‐free heterojunctions toward sustainable synthesis.

Angewandte Chemie
Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK), Fuzhou University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Responsible consumption and production
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
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