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Abstract Defects in nanomaterials often lead to properties that are absent in their pristine counterparts. To date, most studies have focused on the effect of single defects, while ignoring the synergy of multiple defects. In this study, a model of photocatalytic O 2 activation was selected to unravel the role of dual defects by decorating bismuth oxide with surface O vacancies and bulk O substitution simultaneously. The introduction of dual defects led to a spatial and electronic synergistic process: i) O substitution induced a local electric field in the bulk of BiO 2− x , which promoted bulk separation of electrons and holes immediately after their generation; ii) O vacancies efficiently lowered the conduction band, served as the capture center for electrons, and thus facilitated the adsorption and activation of O 2 . This effect was greatly promoted by the coexistence of bulk O substitution, and DFT calculations showed that only O substitution near an O vacancy could have this effect.
Mao et al. (Wed,) studied this question.