Unveiling Mechanistic Insight into Accelerating Oxygen Molecule Activation by Oxygen Defects in CoO/g-CN p-n Heterojunction for Efficient Photo-Assisted Uranium Extraction from Seawater.

Photo-assisted uranium extraction from seawater (UES) is regarded as an efficient technique for uranium resource recovery, yet it currently faces many challenges, such as issues like biofouling resistance, low charge separation efficiency, slow carrier transfer, and a lack of active sites. Based on addressing the above challenges, a novel oxygen-deficient CoO/g-CN p-n heterojunction is developed for efficient photo-assisted uranium extraction from seawater. Relying on the defect-coupling heterojunction synergistic effect, the redistribution of molecular charge density formed the built-in electric field as revealed by DFT calculations, significantly enhancing the separation efficiency of carriers and accelerating their migration rate.