AI Article Synopsis
- Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation to ammonia is a promising alternative to the traditional Haber-Bosch method, especially with improved photocatalysts through defect engineering.
- The study explores pyrochlore BiTiO quantum dots and nanosheets, revealing that the quantum dots have significantly better photocatalytic efficiency, fixing nitrogen at a rate 77 times higher than the nanosheets.
- Analysis indicates that shallow energy levels from oxygen vacancies in the quantum dots, combined with quantum confinement effects, enhance nitrogen's adsorption and activation.
Article Abstract
Photocatalytic fixation of nitrogen to ammonia represents an attractive alternative to the Haber-Bosch process under ambient conditions, and the performance can be enhanced by defect engineering of the photocatalysts, in particular, formation of shallow energy levels due to oxygen vacancies that can significantly facilitate the adsorption and activation of nitrogen. This calls for deliberate size engineering of the photocatalysts. In the present study, pyrochlore BiTiO quantum dots and (bulk-like) nanosheets are prepared hydrothermally by using bismuth nitrate and titanium sulfate as the precursors. Despite a similar oxygen vacancy concentration, the quantum dots exhibit a drastically enhanced photocatalytic performance toward nitrogen fixation, at a rate of 332.03 µmol g h, which is 77 times higher than that of the nanosheet counterpart. Spectroscopic and computational studies based on density functional theory calculations show that the shallow levels arising from oxygen vacancies in the BiTiO quantum dots, in conjunction with the moderately constrained quantum confinement effect, facilitate the chemical adsorption and activation of nitrogen.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11538629 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202408829 | DOI Listing |
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