Photocatalytic CO2 reduction (PCR) is able to convert solar energy into chemicals, fuels, and feedstocks, but limited by the deficiencies of photocatalysts in steering photon-to-electron conversion and activating CO2, especially in pure water. Here we report an efficient, pure water CO2-to-CO conversion photocatalyzed by sub-3-nm-thick BiOCl nanosheets with van der Waals gaps (VDWGs) on the two-dimensional facets, a graphene-analog motif distinct from the majority of previously reported nanosheets usually bearing VDWGs on the lateral facets. Compared with bulk BiOCl, the VDWGs-rich atomic layers possess a weaker excitonic confinement power to decrease exciton binding energy from 137 to 36 meV, consequently yielding a 50-fold enhancement in the bulk charge separation efficiency. Moreover, the VDWGs facilitate the formation of VDWG-Bi-VO••-Bi defect, a highly active site to accelerate the CO2-to-CO transformation via the synchronous optimization of CO2 activation, *COOH splitting, and *CO desorption. The improvements in both exciton-to-electron and CO2-to-CO conversions result in a visible light PCR rate of 188.2 μmol g-1 h-1 in pure water without any co-catalysts, hole scavengers, or organic solvents. These results suggest that increasing VDWG exposure is a way for designing high-performance solar-fuel generation systems.

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Van Der Waals gap-rich BiOCl atomic layers realizing efficient, pure-water CO 2-to-CO photocatalysis

http://manuscript.elsevier.com/S1005030222000512/pdf/S1005030222000512.pdf

Oxygen vacancies induced narrow band gap of BiOCl for efficient visible-light catalytic performance from double radicals

The thermal conductivity of crystalline materials cannot be arbitrarily low, as the intrinsic limit depends on the phonon dispersion. We used complementary strategies to suppress the contribution of the longitudinal and transverse phonons to heat transport in layered materials that contain different types of intrinsic chemical interfaces. BiOCl and Bi2O2Se encapsulate these design principles for longitudinal and transverse modes, respectively, and the bulk superlattice material Bi4O4SeCl2 combines these effects by ordering both interface types within its unit cell to reach an extremely low thermal conductivity of 0.1 watts per kelvin per meter at room temperature along its stacking direction. This value comes within a factor of four of the thermal conductivity of air. We demonstrated that chemical control of the spatial arrangement of distinct interfaces can synergically modify vibrational modes to minimize thermal conductivity.

/pdf/low-thermal-conductivity-in-a-modular-inorganic-material-2huxfqqkiw.pdf

Low thermal conductivity in a modular inorganic material with bonding anisotropy and mismatch

This paper presents tables of key thermoelectric properties, which define thermoelectric conversion efficiency, for a wide range of inorganic materials. The twelve families of materials included in these tables are primarily selected on the basis of well established, internationally-recognized performance and promise for current and future applications: tellurides, skutterudites, half Heuslers, Zintls, Mg–Sb antimonides, clathrates, FeGa3-type materials, actinides and lanthanides, oxides, sulfides, selenides, silicides, borides and carbides. As thermoelectric properties vary with temperature, data are presented at room temperature to enable ready comparison, and also at a higher temperature appropriate to peak performance. An individual table of data and commentary are provided for each family of materials plus source references for all the data.

Key properties of inorganic thermoelectric materials—tables (version 1)

Efficient manipulation of thermal conductivity and fundamental understanding of the microscopic mechanisms of phonon scattering in crystalline solids are crucial to achieve high thermoelectric performance. Thermoelectric energy conversion directly and reversibly converts between heat and electricity and is a promising renewable technology to generate electricity by recovering waste heat and improve solid-state refrigeration. However, a unique challenge in thermal transport needs to be addressed to achieve high thermoelectric performance: the requirement of crystalline materials with ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (κL). A plethora of strategies have been developed to lower κL in crystalline solids by means of nanostructural modifications, introduction of intrinsic or extrinsic phonon scattering centers with tailored shape and dimension, and manipulation of defects and disorder. Recently, intrinsic local lattice distortion and lattice anharmonicity originating from various mechanisms such as rattling, bonding heterogeneity, and ferroelectric instability have found popularity. In this Perspective, we outline the role of manipulation of chemical bonding and structural chemistry on thermal transport in various high-performance thermoelectric materials. We first briefly outline the fundamental aspects of κL and discuss the current status of the popular phonon scattering mechanisms in brief. Then we discuss emerging new ideas with examples of crystal structure and lattice dynamics in exemplary materials. Finally, we present an outlook for focus areas of experimental and theoretical challenges, possible new directions, and integrations of novel techniques to achieve low κL in order to realize high-performance thermoelectric materials.

Insights into Low Thermal Conductivity in Inorganic Materials for Thermoelectrics.

Making new van der Waals materials with electronic or magnetic functionality is a chemical design challenge for the development of two-dimensional nanoelectronic and energy conversion devices. We present the synthesis and properties of the van der Waals material Bi4O4SeCl2, which is a 1:1 superlattice of the structural units present in the van der Waals insulator BiOCl and the three-dimensionally connected semiconductor Bi2O2Se. The presence of three anions gives the new structure both the bridging selenide anion sites that connect pairs of Bi2O2 layers in Bi2O2Se and the terminal chloride sites that produce the van der Waals gap in BiOCl. This retains the electronic properties of Bi2O2Se while reducing the dimensionality of the bonding network connecting the Bi2O2Se units to allow exfoliation of Bi4O4SeCl2 to 1.4 nm height. The superlattice structure is stabilized by the configurational entropy of anion disorder across the terminal and bridging sites. The reduction in connective dimensionality with retention of electronic functionality stems from the expanded anion compositional diversity.

Modular Design via Multiple Anion Chemistry of the High Mobility van der Waals Semiconductor Bi4O4SeCl2.

BiCuSeO is a promising thermoelectric material, but its applications are hindered by low carrier mobility. We use first-principles calculations to analyse electron–phonon scattering mechanisms and evaluate their contributions to the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. The combined scattering of carriers by polar optical (PO) and longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonons yields an intrinsic hole mobility of 32 cm2 V−1 s−1 at room temperature and a temperature power law of T−1.5 between 100–875 K, which agree well with experiments. We demonstrate that electron–phonon scattering in the Cu–Se layer dominates at low T (< 500 K), while contributions from the Bi–O layer become increasingly significant at higher T. At room temperature, ZT is calculated to be 0.48 and can be improved by 30% through weakening PO phonon scattering in the Cu–Se layer. This finding agrees with the experimental observation that weakening the electron–phonon interaction by Te substitution in the Cu–Se layer improves mobility and ZT. At high T, the figure of merit is improved by weakening the electron–PO phonon scattering in the Bi–O layer instead. The theoretical ZT limit of BiCuSeO is calculated to be 2.5 at 875 K.

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Prediction of higher thermoelectric performance in BiCuSeO by weakening electron–polar optical phonon scattering

Doped SrTiO3 and other perovskite structured titanates are attracting interest as n-type thermoelectric materials due to their relatively high thermoelectric power factor, low toxicity, and modest ...

/pdf/effects-of-octahedral-tilting-on-band-structure-and-1tqhsujw1f.pdf

Tianqi Zhao

Papers

Low thermal conductivity in a modular inorganic material with bonding anisotropy and mismatch

Modular Design via Multiple Anion Chemistry of the High Mobility van der Waals Semiconductor Bi4O4SeCl2.

Prediction of higher thermoelectric performance in BiCuSeO by weakening electron–polar optical phonon scattering

Effects of Octahedral Tilting on Band Structure and Thermoelectric Power Factor of Titanate Perovskites: A First-Principles Study on SrTiO3