ABSTRACT
In this work, we have successfully constructed a cobalt-oxo (CoIII 4 O4 ) cubane complex on polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) through pyridine linkage. The covalently grafted CoIII 4 O4 cubane units were uniformly distributed on the PCN surface. The product exhibited greatly enhanced photocatalytic activities for water oxidation under visible-light irradiation. Further characterizations and spectroscopic analyses revealed that the grafted CoIII 4 O4 cubane units could effectively capture the photogenerated holes from excited PCN, lower the overpotential of oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and serve as efficient catalysts to promote the multi-electron water oxidation process. This work provides new insight into the future development of efficient photocatalysts by grafting molecular catalysts for artificial photosynthesis.