Synergy between Confined Cobalt Centers and Oxygen Defects on α‐Fe₂O₃ Platelets for Efficient Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction

Cocatalysts loading is one of the most effective strategies for boosting CO₂ photoreduction. Thus, constructing robust active sites with a specific chemical environment on the cocatalyst to selectively convert CO₂ to chemical fuels is highly desirable, but remains challenging. Herein, α‐Fe₂O₃ platelets modulated with confined Co centers and oxygen defects are designed as efficient cocatalysts for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction with superior activity and CO selectivity. The highly dispersed Co centers can proceed the catalytic processes efficiently as reaction sites, while the oxygen vacancies enable enhancement of the CO₂ adsorption/activation. After integrating together, the oxygen defects provide vigorous assistance to promote the catalytic activity of confined Co sites, leading to facilitated charge transfer and reduced energy barriers for CO₂ photoreduction. As a result, the optimized catalyst achieves a CO generation rate of 37.8 μmol h⁻¹ with an impressive selectivity of 80.2%, as well as remarkable durability for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. This work demonstrates new insights for developing robust catalysts by controlling confined active sites together with defects engineering for efficient photocatalytic CO₂ conversion.