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Ozone modification as an efficient strategy for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation under visible light irradiation

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Abstract

Solar-driven reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia remains greatly challenging due to the stable triple bond between N atoms. In this study, g-C3N4 photocatalysts were synthesized via ozone etching method. Due to the O3 treatment, the resulting photocatalysts were rich in carbon vacancies. Etching g-C3N4 with ozone for two hours (O3GCN-2), resulted in the decrease of size, and the structure becoming less compact. The specific surface area of O3GCN-2 increased up to ~ 12.751 m2·g−1, in comparison with that of the bulk g-C3N4 (BGCN) that was only ~ 5.652 m2·g−1. The nitrogen fixation efficiency of O3GCN-2 was 2.72 times higher than that of BGCN under visible light irradiation. UV–vis, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and photocurrent measurements showed that O3GCN-2 had enhanced visible light absorption properties and enhanced electron–hole separation efficiency. The possible mechanism of the photocatalytic nitrogen fixation was also investigated. This study may provide a novel idea and insight for the design of efficient photocatalysts for nitrogen fixation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Fund of Anhui Province (Grant Number. 1808085ME139) and Anhui Province University Outstanding Young Talents Project (Grant Number. gxyq2020012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, 232001, P. R. China

    Long Zhang, Jianhua Ge & Yujie Liu

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (iChEM), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, Anhui Province, 230026, P. R. China

    Jianhua Ge, Xuyang Zheng & Pingwu Du

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  1. Long Zhang
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Zhang, L., Ge, J., Liu, Y. et al. Ozone modification as an efficient strategy for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation under visible light irradiation. J Porous Mater 28, 825–834 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-021-01038-8

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