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BiVO4/TiO2 heterojunction with rich oxygen vacancies for enhanced electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction

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Abstract

The large-scale production of ammonia mainly depends on the Haber-Bosch process, which will lead to the problems of high energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. Electrochemical nitrogen fixation is considered to be an environmental friendly and sustainable process, but its efficiency largely depends on the activity and stability of the catalyst. Therefore, it is imperative to develop high-efficient electrocatalysts in the field of nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). In this paper, we developed a BiVO4/TiO2 nanotube (BiVO4/TNT) heterojunction composite with rich oxygen vacancies as an electrocatalytic NRR catalyst. The heterojunction interface and oxygen vacancy of BiVO4/TNT can be the active site of N2 dynamic activation and proton transition. The synergistic effect of TiO2 and BiVO4 shortens the proton transport path and reduces the over potential of chemical reaction. BiVO4/TNT has high ammonia yield of 8.54 µg·h−1·cm−2 and high Faraday efficiency of 7.70% in −0.8 V vs. RHE in 0.1 M Na2SO4 solution.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51802126 and 52072152), the Jiangsu University Jinshan Professor Fund and Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professor Fund, Open Fund from Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Materials. The authors also acknowledged the financial support by Guangdong Innovation Research Team for Higher Education (No. 2017KCXTD030) and High-level Talents Project of Dongguan University of Technology (No. KCYKYQD2017017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Energy Research, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Yunliang Liu, Peiji Deng, Ruqiang Wu, Yaxi Li, Yixian Liu & Haitao Li

  2. Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Department, Advanced Materials Division, Central Metallurgical R&D Institute (CMRDI), P.O. Box, 87 Helwan, 11421, Cairo, Egypt

    Ramadan A. Geioushy

  3. College of Chemical Engineering and Energy Technology, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523808, China

    Fengling Zhou

  4. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China

    Haitao Li

  5. Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, 3122, Australia

    Chenghua Sun

  6. Faculty of Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Peiji Deng

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  1. Yunliang Liu
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  2. Peiji Deng
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  9. Chenghua Sun
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Correspondence to Yixian Liu, Fengling Zhou, Haitao Li or Chenghua Sun.

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Heterojunction and Its Applications (Ed. Chenghua Sun). This article can also be found at http://journal.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/10.1007/s11467-021-1067-8.

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Liu, Y., Deng, P., Wu, R. et al. BiVO4/TiO2 heterojunction with rich oxygen vacancies for enhanced electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction. Front. Phys. 16, 53503 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-021-1067-8

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