Developing efficient and durable multifunctional electrocatalysts represents a promising way to address the challenges of resource crisis and environmental contamination. However, the delayed kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which involves a sophisticated four-charge transfer route, is regarded as a major bottleneck for the commercialization of electrolyzed water. Herein, iron was successfully incorporated into cobalt molybdate grown on nickel foam substrate (Fe-CoMoO₄/NF) by a convenient hydrothermal-calcination strategy. Compared with numerous traditional molybdate, it exhibited superior trifunctional electrocatalytic reactivity and stability for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), OER, and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) by reason of the regulation of electronic configuration and the inducement of abundant oxygen defects via Fe doping. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that Fe doping lowers the work function and shifts the d-band center of CoMoO₄, therefore optimizing the adsorption energy of hydrogen and oxygen intermediates. This study brings a profound insights for the structural design and the enhancement of properties of non-precious metal based multifunctional electrocatalysts.

The design and application of single-atom catalysts have gained significant attention in photocatalysis. However, precisely and firmly anchoring single atoms on substrate surfaces remains a challenge. This study employs an innovative silane coupling agent grafting strategy to precisely and stably anchor Cu single-atoms on the substrate. Scanning ransmission lectron microscopy (STEM) and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) confirm the successful loading of Cu single-atoms. Photoelectric tests show that the stable channel formed by the carbon chain effectively enhances carrier separation and transport efficiency between Cu and the substrate. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the adsorption energy barrier of the intermediate product is reduced by 0.106 eV, improving the reaction kinetics. After grafting with the silane coupling agent, the performance of Cu single-atom-loaded materials is further enhanced by 12.16 times. The strong anchoring prevents Cu single-atom detachment and aggregation during photocatalysis, while excess charge carriers produced by Cu atoms are efficiently transferred to the substrate for reaction. Compared to traditional Cu single-atom supported catalysts, the grafted samples in this study demonstrate superior performance and stability in photocatalytic reduction reactions. This approach provides a reliable and innovative pathway for the directional and stable production of single-atom catalysts.

BiOCl possesses special internal electrostatic field and is perpendicular to the (Bi₂O₂)²⁺ layer, which makes it tend to form nanoplatelets. It is well-known, the morphology and band gap of nanomaterials have a decisive effect on its photocatalytic performance. In this paper, a solid-phase chemical reaction was firstly used to prepare Bi_xO_yCl_z porous nanorods with different stoichiometric ratios by adjusting the ratio of reactants. The influence of the change in stoichiometric ratio on the microscopic morphology, energy band structure and photocatalytic performance of bismuth oxychloride was studied. Due to the rich pore structure that could increase the catalytic active sites and the appropriate energy band structure that could improve the absorption capacity of visible light, Bi₁₂O₁₇Cl₂ nanorods displayed the best photocatalytic performance under visible light, which can completely degrading rhodamine B and bisphenol A within 60 minutes.

Defect modulation currently plays a decisive role in addressing the poor photoabsorption, sluggish electron hole separation, and high CO₂ activation barrier in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. However, hunting for a straightforward strategy to balance the concentration of oxygen vacancy and metal cation defect in one photocatalyst is still a great challenge. Herein, a bismuth vacancies BiOBr nanosheets (BiOBr-1) on the exposed [001] facets were constructed via an acetic acid molecule modification strategy, which can repair oxygen defect by bismuth vacancy in low-temperature solid-state chemical method. Benefiting from the formed bismuth defects that can not only broaden light absorption and elevate charge separation efficiency, but also enhance adsorption and activation of CO₂ molecules, the evolution rates of photocatalytic CO₂ conversion into CO (71.23 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹) and CH₄ (8.90 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹) attained by BiOBr-1 are superior 7.1 and 11 times to that of plate-like BiOBr. The photocatalytic mechanisms including adsorption concentration and activation process of CO₂ are further revealed by the in situ diffuse reflectance infrared flourier transform spectra (DRIFTS). This finding of the existence of distinct defects in ultrathin nanosheets undoubtedly leads to new possibilities for photocatalyst design using two-dimensional materials with high solar-driven photocatalytic activity.