Multiscale Structural Engineering of Cobalt Single-Atom Catalyst for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction

Artificial photosynthesis, which converts CO2 into value-added chemicals and fuels, is of enormous potential in overcoming both global environmental problems and energy crisis. However, the development of CO2 photoconversion catalysts with high efficiency remains a great challenge due to the thermodynamic stability and dynamics sluggishness of CO2. Herein, a superior hierarchical porous cobalt single-atom photocatalyst featuring highly dispersed Co isolated single atomic sites on micro-mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon (0.8-Co-ISAS/MMNC-900) is developed and characterized, which significantly boosts the photoreduction of CO2-to-CO. The 0.8-Co-ISAS/MMNC-900 catalyst achieves a high 7261 µmol g−1 h−1 CO formation rate, an impressive 90.1