Spin Effects in Photocatalysis: Fundamental Insights and Applications

Abstract

Solar photocatalysis emerges as a promising solution for sustainable energy conversion and valuable chemical production. However, its efficiency remains limited by three fundamental challenges: suboptimal light harvesting, rapid charge recombination, and sluggish surface redox kinetics. Recent breakthroughs have established electron spin control as a transformative paradigm, achieved through controllable modulation of intrinsic photocatalyst properties (e.g., elemental doping), heterojunction construction, and external fields induction (e.g., magnetic field). These approaches primarily enhance charge separation via spin polarization and improve surface reaction kinetics, thereby improving photocatalytic performances. This minireview systematically outlines the fundamental principles of spin-dependent processes in photocatalysis, with a focus on recent advances in spin effects across various applications, including photocatalytic water splitting, CO₂ conversion, environmental remediation, organic synthesis, and H₂O₂ production. The underlying mechanisms linking electron spin to enhanced photocatalytic activities are discussed in detail. Finally, this review concludes with a summary and future perspectives on spin-mediated photocatalysis, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the spin effect and its regulation for improved photocatalytic applications.

Keywords

H₂O₂ production / photocatalysis / sin effects / water splitting

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