Temperature-Dependent Chiral-Induced Spin Selectivity Effect over Metal Oxyhalide for Photocatalysis

Spin polarization manipulation has been exploited as an effective strategy to regulate the catalytic efficiency, especially for the reactions that involve spin state transition. Chiral structure construction provides an interesting pathway to realize spin polarization through a chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect without complicated materials design and external magnetic field application. Most of the CISS-related studies have been carried out at room temperature, with the effect of the temperature often overlooked. Herein, chiral BiOBr was synthesized, and the CISS effect could be applied for boosting photocatalytic HBrO production, which is attributed to the suppressed recombination of photogenerated carriers. More importantly, the CISS effect was demonstrated to be temperature dependent and could be strengthened at an elevated temperature. The elaborate mechanism study also shows that electrons with a specific spin orientation would facilitate electron transfer to O 2 for promoting the subsequent reactions. This work offers solid evidence for the temperature dependency of the CISS effect and could benefit the exploration of more untapped paradigms for photocatalysis through spin polarization.