Chiral Mesostructured Mo Doped Bi2WO6 Drives Photocatalytic Urea Synthesis From N2 and CO2.

Direct synthesis of urea through photocatalytic N2 and CO2 reduction (PNCR) offers a sustainable approach to mitigate CO2 emissions and reduce energy consumption from urea production for industry and agriculture. However, achieving high yield of urea is limited by the high energy barrier for co-reduction of N2 and CO2 with subsequent C-N coupling. Herein, we propose that the spin polarization of chiral mesostructured Mo doped Bi2WO6 (CMMB) can facilitate the formation of triplet 3NOH by regulating the parallel electron spin alignment and promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated carriers, leading to enhanced C-N formation. The incorporation of Mo sites into Bi2WO6 promotes the adsorption and activation of N2. A state-of-the-art urea yield was achieved without additives via PNCR on CMMB, surpassing the best-reported inorganic catalyst by a significant margin. This study provides an effective strategy for designing catalyst structures for the green synthesis of organonitrogen compounds.