Hui Xiangchao, Wang Lijun, Yao Zhibo, Hao Leiduan, Sun Zhenyu
State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, College of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China.
Front Chem. 2022 Aug 22;10:978078. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2022.978078. eCollection 2022.
Photocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) to ammonia holds a great promise for substituting the traditional energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process, which entails sunlight as an inexhaustible resource and water as a hydrogen source under mild conditions. Remarkable progress has been achieved regarding the activation and solar conversion of N to NH with the rapid development of emerging photocatalysts, but it still suffers from low efficiency. A comprehensive review on photocatalysts covering tungsten and related metals as well as their broad ranges of alloys and compounds is lacking. This article aims to summarize recent advances in this regard, focusing on the strategies to enhance the photocatalytic performance of tungsten and related metal semiconductors for the NRR. The fundamentals of solar-to-NH photocatalysis, reaction pathways, and NH quantification methods are presented, and the concomitant challenges are also revealed. Finally, we cast insights into the future development of sustainable NH production, and highlight some potential directions for further research in this vibrant field.
光催化氮还原反应（NRR）制氨对于替代传统能源密集型哈伯-博施法具有巨大潜力，该过程在温和条件下以阳光作为取之不尽的资源，以水作为氢源。随着新型光催化剂的迅速发展，在氮活化和太阳能转化为氨方面已经取得了显著进展，但效率仍然较低。目前缺乏对涵盖钨及相关金属及其广泛合金和化合物的光催化剂的全面综述。本文旨在总结这方面的最新进展，重点关注提高钨及相关金属半导体用于NRR的光催化性能的策略。介绍了太阳能到氨光催化的基本原理、反应途径和氨定量方法，并揭示了随之而来的挑战。最后，我们对可持续氨生产的未来发展进行了展望，并突出了这个充满活力的领域中一些潜在的进一步研究方向。
