Developing metallic co-catalysts is an effective way to enhance the photocatalytic activity of semiconductor by forming the Schottky junction, but it remains challenging to unveil the design principle. Herein, a novel nanocomposite is prepared by coupling ultra-small WP nanoparticles embedded on N-doped carbon (WPNC) with 2D graphitic C₃N₄ (g-C₃N₄). The WPNC and g-C₃N₄ form an intimate interface via PN chemical bonds at atomic level, which facilitates the flow of photoexcited electrons from g-C₃N₄ to WPNC. Moreover, the Schottky junction formed at the interface can prevent the charge-carrier recombination in the WPNC/g-C₃N₄ composite and thus significantly enhance the photocatalytic CO production rate from 29 (bare g-C₃N₄) to 376 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹. As the first example of WP applied on the photocatalytic CO₂ reduction, this work demonstrates the potential of metallic WP as a co-catalyst in photocatalysis and provides a useful guide on the phosphide-based material designing.

开发金属助催化剂是通过形成肖特基结来增强半导体的光催化活性的有效方法，但是揭示设计原理仍然具有挑战性。本文中，通过将嵌入在N掺杂碳（WP NC）上的超小WP纳米颗粒与2D石墨C ₃ N ₄（gC ₃ N ₄）偶联，制备了新型纳米复合材料。WP NC和gC ₃ N ₄通过原子级PN化学键形成紧密的界面，这促进了光激发电子从gC ₃ N ₄到WP的流动NC。此外，在界面处形成的肖特基结可以防止WP NC / gC ₃ N ₄复合材料中的电荷-载流子复合，从而显着提高光催化CO的生产速率，从29（裸gC ₃ N ₄）提高到376μmolg ^-1 h ^-1。作为将WP用于光催化还原CO ₂的第一个实例，这项工作证明了金属WP作为光催化助催化剂的潜力，并为基于磷化物的材料设计提供了有用的指导。