Gao Junyu, Wu Fan, Zhao Yunxuan, Bian Xuanang, Zhou Chao, Tang Junwang, Zhang Tierui
Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
ChemSusChem. 2023 Nov 22;16(22):e202300944. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202300944. Epub 2023 Aug 22.
Drawing inspiration from the enzyme nitrogenase in nature, researchers are increasingly delving into semiconductor photocatalytic nitrogen fixation due to its similar surface catalytic processes. Herein, we reported a facile and efficient approach to achieving the regulation of ZnO/ZnCr O photocatalysts with ZnCr-layered double hydroxide (ZnCr-LDH) as precursors. By optimizing the composition ratio of Zn/Cr in ZnCr-LDH to tune interfaces, we can achieve an enhanced nitrogen photofixation performance (an ammonia evolution rate of 31.7 μmol g h using pure water as a proton source) under ambient conditions. Further, photo-electrochemical measurements and transient surface photovoltage spectroscopy revealed that the enhanced photocatalytic activity can be ascribed to the effective carrier separation efficiency, originating from the abundant composite interfaces. This work further demonstrated a promising and viable strategy for the synthesis of nanocomposite photocatalysts for nitrogen photofixation and other challenging photocatalytic reactions.
