Plasmonic metal oxide for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation

Abstract

Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation is one of the most promising technologies to replace the Haber‐Bosch process for the green synthesis of ammonia under mild conditions. However, the solar energy to ammonia conversion efficiency is still low due to the narrow spectral absorption range, low activity, and excessive photogenerated carrier recombination of the photocatalyst. Defect engineering is an efficient strategy to develop active photocatalysts for nitrogen fixation. In this report, we will show two cases to demonstrate the importance of oxygen vacancies on improving photocatalytic performance. In the first case, we employed Fe doping to regulate the photocatalytic activity of wide bandgap SrMoO₄ and SrWO4^[1-2]. In the second case, localized surface plasmon resonance was introduced in SrMoO₄ nanoparticles by the annealing treatment in a reductive atmosphere^[3].