Oxygen Vacancies Mediated Complete Visible Light NO Oxidation via

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Oxygen Vacancies Mediated Complete Visible Light NO Oxidation via Side-On Bridging Superoxide Radicals Hao Li, Huan Shang, Xuemei Cao, Zhiping Yang, Zhihui Ai, and Lizhi Zhang Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b01849 • Publication Date (Web): 02 Jul 2018 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on July 2, 2018

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Environmental Science & Technology

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Oxygen Vacancies Mediated Complete Visible Light NO

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Oxidation via Side-On Bridging Superoxide Radicals

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Hao Li,‡ Huan Shang,‡ Xuemei Cao, Zhiping Yang, Zhihui Ai* and Lizhi Zhang*

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Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Applied &

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Environmental Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079,

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P. R. China

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* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected];

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[email protected].

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Phone/Fax: +86-27-6786 7535

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12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

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Environmental Science & Technology 24

ABSTRACT It is of a great challenge to seek for semiconductor photocatalysts with prominent

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reactivity to remove kinetically-inert dilute NO without NO2 emission. In this study, complete

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visible light NO oxidation mediated by O2 is achieved over a defect-engineered BiOCl with

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selectivity exceeding 99%. Well-designed oxygen vacancies on the prototypical (001) surface of

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BiOCl favored the possible formation of geometric-favorable superoxide radicals (•O2-) in a side-on

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bridging mode under ambient condition, which thermodynamically suppressed the terminal end-on

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•O2- associated NO2 emission in case of higher temperatures, and thus selectively oxidized NO to

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nitrate. These findings can help us to understand the intriguing surface chemistry of photocatalytic

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NO oxidation and design highly efficient NOx removal systems.

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Keywords: NO oxidation; Photocatalysis; Oxygen vacancy; Superoxide radical; Selectivity

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Introduction

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Anthropogenically-derived nitric oxide (NO), even in an infinitesimal concentration (sub-ppm or

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ppb levels), is still regarded as the major contributor to acid rain, photochemical smog, ozone

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depletion, and bears a principal responsibility for respiratory and cardiopulmonary diseases in highly

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populated cities.1 Conventionally, dilute NO can be pre-concentrated by absorbents like active

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carbon and zeolites for subsequent selective catalytic reduction (SCR) removal, while the heavy use

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of noble metals (Pt, Ru, Pd) and reducing reagents under high operating temperatures (>500 K)

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largely restrict its practical application.2 Driven by the stringent environment regulations,

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semiconductors-based photocatalysis has received considerable attention in view of its potentiality

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for efficient dilute NO removal.3,4 Unfortunately, photocatalytic NO removal still suffers from the

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toxic intermediates generation and nitrification products handling, as NO2 with higher toxicity may

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be generated. Although selective NO reduction kinetics with ammonia (2NH3 + NO + NO2 → 2N2 + ACS Paragon Plus Environment

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3H2O) will be maximized to reduce the emission of NO2 in SCR system by unifying the ratio of

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NO2/NO in a relatively closed chamber,2,5 NO2 is an extremely undesirable intermediate or product

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in open photocatalytic system. Therefore, the complete NO oxidation to nitrate during photocatalytic

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NO removal remains a great challenge, which will avoid risky NO2 emission and also provide

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potential metabolic nitrogen for micro-organisms.

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Unavoidable NO2 generation in contemporary photocatalytic NO removal systems is normally

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attributed to the presence of one-oxygen reactive species such as holes (O-) and hydroxyl radicals

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(•OH), which detrimentally lead to the partial NO oxidation (NO(g) + O-/•OH → NO2(g)). In the light

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of this fact, tuning the formation of oxygen reactive species in the molecular form to dominantly

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govern complete NO oxidation, particularly superoxide radicals (O2 + e- → •O2-; NO(g) + •O2- →

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NO3-), has been proposed previously.3,6 Unfortunately, such a •O2--based solution still remains

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debatable because some scientists found that •O2- could also cause the partial NO oxidation (NO(g)

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→ NO2(g)/NO2(aq)-).7-9 The controversy over this issue intrinsically stems from the poor

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understanding of mechanistic function schemes of •O2- for NO oxidation on the surface molecular

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level, especially the influences of specific geometric structures of •O2- on the reaction selectivity

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have never been taken into consideration.

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In this study, we demonstrate that complete NO oxidation to nitrate with selectivity exceeding

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99% can be achieved by the possible generation of side-on bridging •O2-, using a defect-engineered

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BiOCl as the model photocatalyst. BiOCl, as a characteristic UV-light-responsive oxide material,

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has received growing attention due to its inherent oxygen vacancies (OVs) associated

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photocatalysis.10,11 Well-designed catalytic OVs on its prototypical (001) surface can extend the

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photoresponse region of BiOCl to visible light, and also allow the selective and efficient activation

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of O2 to •O2- in different geometric structures possible for atomistic level investigation and practical

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application. ACS Paragon Plus Environment


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Experimental Section

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Chemicals and Materials. Synthetic materials for BiOCl and other related chemicals were bought

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from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd.

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Preparation of BiOCl. Hierarchical BiOCl nanospheres were prepared according to the method

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reported by our group.12 First, we slowly added 3 mmol Bi(NO3)3·5H2O into 16 mL ethylene glycol

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solution, which contained 3 mmol KCl. Then, the mixture was kept stirring until Bi(NO3)3·5H2O was

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totally dissolved. Finally, we poured the above mixture into a Teflon-lined stainless autoclave (20

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mL). After 12 h of reaction at 160 °C, the precipitates were centrifuged and the surface residual ions

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were totally washed with deionized water and ethanol. The as-obtained powder, which was denoted

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as BiOCl-OV, was dried at 60 °C in air for further use. In order to prepare BiOCl-OV with lower

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concentration of OVs, we calcined BiOCl-OV in the air at 300 oC for different time, e. g. 30 min, 60

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min, 90 min, 120 min, and 180 min to gradually reoxidize the OVs. When the calcination time was

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lengthened to 3 h, we were able to obtain a nearly defect-free BiOCl counterpart sample. To prepare

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freestanding BiOCl nanosheets with (001) surface exposed, we added 1 mmol of Bi(NO3)3·5H2O

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into distilled water (16 mL), which contained 1 mmol KCl. pH value was then adjusted to 1 with

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using 1 M NaOH under continuous stirring. We then poured the above mixture into a Teflon-lined

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stainless autoclave (20 mL).13 After 24 h of reaction under 220 °C, resulting precipitates were

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centrifuged and the surface residual ions were totally washed with deionized water and ethanol.

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Final BiOCl powder was dried at 60 °C for further use. In order to introduce OVs on the

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freestanding BiOCl nanosheets, 0.1 g of BiOCl was uniformly dispersed in a crucible and annealed

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at 300 °C for 120 min under high vacuum with the heating rate being controlled at 5 oC/min.

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First-principles density of functional theory (DFT) calculation. Theoretical calculations were

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performed

via

DFT

+

U

calculations

(generalized


gradient

approximation

with

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Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange-correlation function).14 Thickness of BiOCl(001) surface

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was tested using a (1 × 1) surface, and was implemented by the CASTEP code. In this part of

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calculation, we used the ultrasoft pseudopotentials and plane-wave pseudopotential approach for all

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the atoms.15,16 Kinetic energy cutoff was set as 380 eV. During the optimization, the force and energy

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respectively converged to 0.03 eV/Å and 10-5 eV/atom.17 For subsequent NO or O2 adsorption

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calculation, a (2 × 2) supercell with a 20 Å vacuum was further used. This part of calculation was

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enabled by a VASP code with a kinetic energy cutoff of 520 eV.18,19 Location of the transition states

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(TS) was determined by nudged elastic band (NEB) method.20,21 We calculated the adsorption energy

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was calculated as via the following equation: ∆E = E(BiOCl + adsorbate) - E(BiOCl) - E(adsorbate).

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The E(adsorbate) and E(BiOCl) are respectively the energies of the two isolated (noninteracting)

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subsystems, while E(BiOCl + adsorbate) is total energy of the interacting adsorbate-surface system.

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We depicted charge density difference via: ∆ρ = ρ(BiOCl + adsorbate) - ρ(adsorbate) - ρ(BiOCl).

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ρ(adsorbate) and ρ(BiOCl) are respectively the densities of the two noninteracting subsystems, while

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ρ(BiOCl + adsorbate) is the density of the interacting adsorbate-surface system.

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Materials characterization. Phase structure of the as-prepared BiOCl was determined by the

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powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements (Rigaku D/MAX-RB diffractometer, Cu Ka

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radiation, Λ= 0.15418 nm). Surface morphology was recorded via a field-emission scanning electron

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microscope (SEM, JEOL 6700-F) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM, JEOL JSM-2010).

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Light absorption capacity of BiOCl was evaluated via a UV-visible spectrophotometer (UV-2550,

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Shimadzu, Japan). To observe in situ catalytic NO oxidation, surface functional group change was

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recorded with a diffuse reflectance FTIR spectra (Nicolet iS50FT-IR). Concentration of

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photoinduced •O2- and OVs were quantitatively determined via electron paramagnetic resonance

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(EPR, Billerica, MA) using Cu2+ as the calibrator. NO and O2 adsorption on BiOCl were evaluated

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via temperature-programmed desorption experiments (TPD) in a quartz reactor using a TCD as ACS Paragon Plus Environment


detector. NO2-TPD was analyzed with a flow reactor connected to a mass spectrometer (UTI 100C).

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Nitrate was measured by Thermo Scientific Dionex ionic chromatography (ICS-900). Valence state

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of Bi was analyzed with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, Perkin-Elmer PHI 5000C).

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Photocatalytic activity test. We prepared BiOCl or TiO2 films by carefully coating the aqueous

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suspension of the corresponding photocatalysts onto a glass dish (diameter = 12 cm). A continuous

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flow reactor was adopted to simulate practical NO removal at ppb levels under ambient conditions.

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Volume of the rectangular reactor (30 cm × 15 cm × 10 cm [L × W × H]) was around 4.5 L. For

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photocatalytic NO removal over BiOCl, a Xenon lamp (λ > 400 nm) or UV light (λ ~ 360 nm) was

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used. A 480 nm monochromatic light (20 mW/cm2) was used as the light source for photocatalytic

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NO removal over TiO2-P25. NO gas was provided from a compressed gas cylinder with a

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concentration around 50 ppm balanced by Ar, which was further diluted to 500 ppb by an air stream.

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A gas blender was used to mix the gas streams, simultaneously controlling the flow rate at 1 L/min.

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To ensure the sufficient absorption of light by the as-prepared films, the lamp was placed vertically

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above the films, which sat in the middle of the reactor. After adsorption-desorption equilibrium were

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reached, the light source was turned on to trigger the photocatalytic reactions. The concentration of

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NO and NO2 were monitored by a chemiluminescence NOx (the sum of NO and NO2) analyzer

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(Teledyne, NOx analyzer, model T200).

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Results and Discussion

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DFT calculation revealed fully oxidized BiOCl(001) surface was quite inert towards NO or O2

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adsorption, while the introduction of an OV with localized electrons remarkably enhanced its surface

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reactivity. According to the adsorption energies and activated bond lengths, O2 in either terminal

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end-on or side-on bridging mode interacted more strongly with the OV as compared with NO, which

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is reasonable as O2 of lower 2π* orbital energy is a better electron-acceptor than NO (Figure S1). So, ACS Paragon Plus Environment

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aerobic catalytic NO removal, especially in case of extremely low concentration of NO, is supposed

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to take place via an Eley-Rideal mechanism, through which NO will attack the •O2- preferentially

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adsorbed on OVs.22 A broader DFT study was then performed to explore the possible NO oxidation

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pathways and intermediate species initiated by surface •O2- in different geometries. When NO

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approached the terminal end-on •O2-, it was oxidized to peroxynitrite (OONO-), simultaneously

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releasing 1.32 eV energy (pathway I). Peroxynitrite is known to be a powerful and toxic oxidant that

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causes the direct biotoxicity of NO when NO acts as an intercellular messenger in vivo, and also a

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transient precursor towards the NO2 formation on metal or metal oxide surfaces.23,24 As expected,

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breaking of the O-O bond in peroxynitrite led to the release of gaseous NO2 with a barrier of 0.49 eV

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(Figure 1a).

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Figure 1. (a) Free energy change against the reaction coordinate for the oxidation of NO by •O2- on

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BiOCl(001) surface in different geometries. (b) Geometric transition from peroxynitrite to nitrate.

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TS represents transition state. Charge density difference and O2 partial DOS of the BiOCl(001) ACS Paragon Plus Environment


surface adsorbed with (c) O2 and (d) nitrate. The yellow and blue isosurfaces with an isovalue of

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0.005 a.u. represent charge accumulation and depletion in the space. The vertical dashed line in the

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DOS shows the VBM.

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Differently, side-on bridging •O2- could directly oxidize NO into monodentate nitrate without

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any barrier (pathway II, ∆E = -3.10 eV), which was far more thermodynamically accessible than

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pathway I. Abstracting a proton from a neighboring hydroxyl or adsorbed water by nitrate towards

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the formation of HNO3* was also favorable with an energy release around 1.64 eV. Moreover, energy

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expenditure towards the diffusion of nitrate or HNO3 on the surface was only 0.20 eV, much smaller

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than that (0.49 eV) of NO2 desorption (Figure 1a). Since geometric transformation from

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peroxynitrite to its structural isomer of nitrate was up against a high barrier of 1.03 eV, NO oxidation

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via pathway I or II was rather independent (Figure 1b). Such a theoretical scenario can explain the

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controversy over the mechanistic roles of •O2- on the NO oxidation. Obviously, the side-on bridging

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•O2- (•O2-B) mediated complete NO oxidation (pathway II: •O2-B + NO(g) → NO3-) would be prior to

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the terminal end-on one (•O2-T) mediated partial NO oxidation (pathway I: •O2-T + NO(g) → OONO-

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→ NO2) according to the reaction thermodynamics.

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To uncover the remarkably promoted thermodynamics of NO oxidation by side-on bridging •O2-,

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charge density difference calculation was adsopted to trace the interfacial charge transfer. After O2

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was adsorbed on the OV of BiOCl(001) surface, instant charge back donation from the OV to O2

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occurred, which was depicted by the localized electrons depletion on two Bi atoms around the OV

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and electrons accumulation on the coordinating O2 (Figure 1c). Partial density of states (DOS) of O2

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contained two occupied spin-up majority states and one occupied spin-down minority state below

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the Fermi energy, as well as an empty spin-down minority states near the conduction band, revealing

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the filling of one O2 2π* orbital toward the •O2- formation (Figure 1c).25 Along with the nitrate

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formation, •O2- was then found to interact rigorously with NO according to a significant charge ACS Paragon Plus Environment

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depletion of N atom and an extraordinary electron gaining by three O atoms, manifesting an

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outstanding oxidative ability (Figure 1d). Meanwhile, 2π orbitals of •O2- underwent a considerable

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broadening and were shifted below the valence band maximum (VBM) of BiOCl, indicating the

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complete NO oxidation by side-on bridging •O2- (Figure 1d).22,26,27

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Figure 2. (a) Backscattered scanning electron microscopy image of BiOCl nanospheres and (b) their

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Barrett-Joyner-Halenda pore-size distribution plot. (c) NO-TPD and (d) O2-TPD profiles of the

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BiOCl photocatalysts. (e) EPR spectra of BiOCl-OV under different conditions.

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Motivated by the theoretical calculation results, we then synthesized specific hierarchical BiOCl

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nanospheres assembled by (001) surface exposed nanosheets containing OVs (BiOCl-OV) (Figure

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2a and S2). The presence and the relative concentration of OVs were estimated by XPS (Figure S3).

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The hierarchical nanostructured morphology with small mesopores (2~10 nm), which are beneficial ACS Paragon Plus Environment


for adsorbates/products diffusion and transportation in many energy and environmental applications,

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offers the possibility of nitrate diffusion and storage for long term NO removal (Figure 2b and

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S4).28,29 To experimentally verify whether BiOCl-OV could achieve complete NO oxidation

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mediated by side-on bridging •O2- on (001) surface, a series of techniques were performed to in situ

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characterize the surface chemistry under reaction conditions. Temperature-programmed desorption

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(TPD) was first used to detect NO and O2 adsorption on BiOCl-OV. NO-TPD spectra of BiOCl-OV

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was dominated by two desorption at 455 K and 502 K (Figure 2c). Since hydroxyl groups and lattice

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O atoms on clean BiOCl(001) surface were inert for direct oxidation of NO to nitrite or nitrate, these

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two peaks were therefore ascribed to the chemical adsorption of NO on OV with *O or *N-end. As

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for O2-TPD, we observed a wide molecular O2 desorption peak from 450 K to 700 K over

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BiOCl-OV that surface side-on bridging •O2- were supposed to fall into this region (Figure 2d).

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Judging from the temperature and area of the desorption peaks, O2 was supposed to be adsorbed

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preferentially on the OVs as compared with NO, consistent with our DFT calculations. Spin-reactive

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•O2- were then monitored by room-temperature (298 K) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). As

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compared with BiOCl, BiOCl-OV possessed a typical signal at g = 2.001, corresponding to the

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inherent OVs (Figure 2e). Irradiation of BiOCl-OV with visible light in O2 atmosphere led to the

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formation of another anisotropic EPR peak with a g-tensor of 2.005, being ascribed to the

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photoinduced •O2- (Figure 2e).7 Such an •O2- EPR peak was not observed for BiOCl (Figure 2e).

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Interestingly, on exposure to NO gas, intensity of the EPR signal for •O2- completely disappeared,

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suggesting the intimate interaction between •O2- and NO (Figure 2e).


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Figure 3. (a) Schematic illustration of the reaction cell for the in situ FTIR study. (b) FTIR spectra

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of BiOCl-OV during photocatalytic NO oxidation. (c) Dynamic change of the •O2-/NO3- absorbance

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increase along with NO absorbance peak decrease. (d) NO2-TPD profiles of BiOCl-OV under

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different reaction conditions

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Diffuse reflectance FTIR spectroscopy was further employed to check the possible reaction

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intermediates and/or products on the BiOCl-OV in a special reaction cell (Figure 3a and Figure S5).

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In the absence of O2, NO at trace concentration in the vacuum cell gave two distinct bands at 1091

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cm-1 and 1630 cm-1 on the BiOCl-OV at 298 K in the dark (Figure 3b). The former band was

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possibly arisen from the negatively-charged OV-NO species, and the latter broad band was due to

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surface undissociated water, as specifically demonstrated by time-dependent in situ NO adsorption

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on BiOCl in the dark (Figure S6). After sufficient O2 was pumped in, visible light illumination was ACS Paragon Plus Environment


then introduced to trigger photocatalytic reactions. Significant changes of FTIR spectra were vividly

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observed. First, the band at 1091 cm-1 gradually decreased and became negative, accompanied by the

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progressive increase of the band at 1003 cm-1 (Figure 3b). This band at 1003 cm-1 could be attributed

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to the O-O stretching mode of side-on bridging O2- species, suggesting the rapid replacement of NO

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by O2 on the OVs. Second, replaced NO was immediately converted to other nitrogen species

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(Figure 3b). Sharp band at 1274 cm-1 was assigned to the ν3´´(split) mode of nitrate in a particular

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monodentate state and the broad band at 1477 cm-1 was ascribed to the almost symmetrical surface

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nitrate.30 The wide band from 1600 to 1800 cm-1 was typical of combination band associated with

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NO and free nitrate.31 Noticeably, IR absorbance intensity of •O2- and NO3- species linearly

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increased along with that of NO decrease, indicating that the oxidation of NO to nitrate was directly

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mediated with photoinduced •O2- (Figure 3c). TPD was then employed to more precisely

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differentiate the surface nitrogen species. 18O-labelled O2 was used to avoid the possible interference

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of lattice O or pre-adsorbed O2 on NO oxidation. For photocatalytic NO oxidation under 298 K,

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BiOCl-OV surface exhibited a recognizable NO2 desorption peak at 548 K with m/z of 48,

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suggesting one the O atoms in NO2 was 18O-labelled (Figure 3d). Since the chemical adsorption of

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NO2 on BiOCl-OV corresponded to a desorption peak at remarkably lower temperature of 438 K, the

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NO2 desorption peak at 545 K was therefore arisen from 18O-labelled nitrate thermal decomposition

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on BiOCl-OV surface (16O=N18O18O- → N16O18O) (Figure 3d).32 This observation was in consistent

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with the FTIR result that the selective product of photocatalytic NO oxidation under ambient

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condition was nitrate, not gaseous NO2 or surface NO2-, directly evidencing that complete NO

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oxidation toward the formation of nitrate was the major pathway on BiOCl-OV via

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geometric-favorable side-on bridging •O2-. It was interesting to note that NO2 desorption peak

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around 438 K appeared during the photocatalytic NO oxidation at 335 K and 355 K, suggesting the

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formation of chemically-adsorbed NO2 at higher reaction temperatures (Figure 3d). Apparently, the ACS Paragon Plus Environment

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appearance of chemically-adsorbed NO2 was associated with a coexisted NO oxidation pathway I,

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governed by terminal end-on •O2- according to the DFT calculations. This is reasonable because the

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barrier of the O-O bond breaking in peroxynitrite for gaseous NO2 desorption via pathway I is only

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0.49 eV, which could be overcame via thermal heating (Figure 1a). However, this terminal end-on

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•O2- associated partial NO oxidation could be largely inhibited by the side-on bridging •O2- mediated

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complete NO oxidation by performing the reaction at room temperature. We believe that the

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proposed NO removal pathway, mainly supported by theoretical calculation and in situ TPD

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measurements, will still require further experimental validation with sophisticated in situ

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characterization techniques, including XPS and scanning tunneling microscope.

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Figure 4. (a) Photocatalytic NO removal over the as-prepared BiOCl under visible light. (b)

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Influence of generated •O2- on the NO oxidation kinetic constants and the NO2 concentration. (c)

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Schematic illustration of photocatalytic NO removal on BiOCl-OV. (d) Transient photocatalytic NO ACS Paragon Plus Environment


removal on BiOCl-OV.

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To confirm the above results and discussions, we thus employed the as-prepared BiOCl-OV film

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to remove dilute NO (500 ppb) in a continuous flow reactor at 298 K (Figure S7). Defect-free BiOCl

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could not remove NO efficiently under visible light irradiation (λ > 400 nm). As for BiOCl-OV, we

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observed a fast drop of NO concentration in 5 min, followed by a slower decrease with up to 70%

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NO removal efficiency being achieved within 15 min (Figure 4a). As expected, only 4 ppb NO2 was

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on-line detected, much lower than the regulation standard (0.24 ppm, GB/T18883-2002) of indoor

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NO2 and also suggesting most of NO was directly oxidized to nitrate with selectivity exceeding 99%.

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This high selectivity towards the nitrate formation was further verified by calculating the nitrogen

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balance via ion chromatography (Figure S8). Photocatalytic NO removal rates were linearly related

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with •O2- in different concentrations without generating detectable NO2 (Figure 4b). Together with

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reactive species trapping experiment, we further proposed that photocatalytic NO oxidation to nitrate

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was directly related to •O2- generated via BiOCl intraband excitation, through which both holes (O-)

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and •OH could be avoided (Figure 4c, S9 and S10). Interestingly, for commercial TiO2-P25,

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photocatalytic NO2 emission could also be inhibited after the introduction of OVs (Figure S11 and

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S12). We believe the dominant reactive surfaces, including the rutile(110) surface and anatase(101)

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surface, which allow the formation of side-on bridging reactive oxygen species, are responsible for

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promoted complete NO oxidation (Figure S13).27,28,33,34 Meanwhile, along with reaction temperature

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increase from 298 K to 375 K, the selectivity for photocatalytic NO2 generation over BiOCl-OV was

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gradually increased from 0.8% to 22.6%, agreeing well with the TPD results (Figure S14). In

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comparison with the poor long-term stability of free-standing BiOCl-OV single crystalline

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nanosheets with limited surface area and hierarchicality (Figure 4d and S15), BiOCl-OV

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nanospheres were stable for continuous NO removal, highlighting the beneficial effects of ACS Paragon Plus Environment

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mesopores for nitrate diffusion and storage (Figure S3). XPS analysis revealed Bi also maintained

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most of its valence state after repeated use. Although the area percentage of Bi(3−x)+ XPS peaks at

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163.8 and 158.4 eV of BiOCl-OV was slightly decreased from 23.5% to 20.3% (Figure S16a and

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S16b), this slight decrease of OVs could be easily recovered via thermal annealing under high

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vacuum at 250 oC for 10 min (Figure S16c).35 The stored nitrate after hours of use could be easily

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washed down, exhibiting a nitrate storage capacity of 7.3 × 10-3 mol g-1 h-1, much larger than that of

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active carbon (0.10 × 10-3 mol g-1 h-1) under the same condition.

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Environmental Implications.

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Complete removal of dilute NO without NO2 emission is a great challenge. Aiming to avoid partial

299

NO oxidation and gain mechanistic insight into the intrinsic catalytic roles of •O2-, we have utilized a

300

defect-engineered BiOCl to realize the complete oxidation of NO under visible light. It was

301

demonstrated that well-designed catalytic OVs on the prototypical (001) surface of BiOCl favored

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the possible formation of geometric-favorable •O2- in a side-on bridging mode under ambient

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conditions, which thermodynamically suppressed the terminal end-on •O2- associated NO2 emission

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in case of higher temperatures, and thus selectively oxidized NO to nitrate. These findings will

305

provide the instructive information on exploring the intriguing surface chemistry of photocatalytic

306

NO oxidation and developing highly efficient NOx removal systems.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

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Corresponding Author

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*Phone/Fax: +86-27-6786 7535; [email protected]; [email protected]

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Author Contributions

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‡

H.L. and H. S. contributed equally to this work. ACS Paragon Plus Environment


Notes

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The authors declare no competing financial interest

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Acknowledgements: This work was supported by The National Key Research and Development

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Program of China (2016YFA0203000), National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young

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Scholars (21425728), National Science Foundation of China (21477044 and 51472100), 111 Project

319

(B17019), Self-Determined Research Funds of CCNU from the Colleges’ Basic Research and

320

Operation of MOE (CCNU16A02029). We also thank the National Supercomputer Center in Jinan

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for providing high performance computation.

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ASSOCIATED CONTENT

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Supporting Information: NO and O2 adsorption model on prototypical BiOCl(001) surface;

326

reactive species trapping experiment; organic pollutants degradation profiles; photocatalytic NO

327

removal over TiO2 with OVs; surface area and charge of the catalysts; influence of temperatures on

328

photocatalytic NO removal; characterization of free-standing BiOCl single-crystalline nanosheets

329

(PDF)

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TOC Art Figure

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Oxygen Vacancies Mediated Complete Visible Light NO Oxidation via

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