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Published January 7, 2017 | Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Efficient photocatalytic reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia on bismuth monoxide quantum dots

Abstract

N_2 reduction to ammonia by solar light represents a green and sustainable ammonia synthesis approach which helps to suppress the global warming and energy crisis. However, conventional semiconductors usually suffer from low activity or poor stability, largely suppressing the application of this technology. Here, we report that bismuth monoxide (BiO) quantum dots with an average size of 2–5 nm exhibited efficient photocatalytic activity for ammonia synthesis under simulated solar light. A highly efficient ammonia synthesis rate of 1226 μmol g^(−1) h^(−1) is achieved without the assistance of any sacrificial agent or co-catalyst, which is about 1000 times higher than that using the traditional Fe-TiO_2 photocatalyst. Kinetic analysis reveals that the synergy of three low valence surface Bi(II) species markedly enhances N_2 activation by electron donation, which finally resulted in the highly efficient N_2 photoreduction performance. This work will shed light on designing efficient and robust N_2 reduction photocatalysts.

Additional Information

© 2016 Royal Society of Chemistry. Received 26th October 2016. Accepted 13th November 2016. First published online 15 Nov 2016. This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB933200), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21671197, 51272269, 51272303, 51472260), and the research grant (16ZR1440800) from Shanghai Science and Technology Commission. Prof. Guangyu Li from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry is gratefully acknowledged for measurement and interpretation of the NMR data.

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