Ammonia (NH3) is one of the key agricultural fertilizers and to date, industries are using the conventional Haber-Bosh process for the synthesis of NH3 which requires high temperature and energy. To overcome such challenges and to find a sustainable alternative process, researchers are focusing on the photocatalytic nitrogen fixation process. Recently, the effective utilization of sunlight has been proposed via photocatalytic water splitting for producing green energy resource, hydrogen. Inspired by this phenomenon, the production of ammonia via nitrogen, water and sunlight has been attracted many efforts. Photocatalytic N2 fixation presents a green and sustainable ammonia synthesis pathway. Currently, the strategies for development of efficient photocatalyst for nitrogen fixation is primarily concentrated on creating active sites or loading transition metal to facilitate the charge separation and weaken the N–N triple bond. In this investigation, we review the literature knowledge about the photocatalysis phenomena and the most recent developments on the semiconductor nanocomposites for nitrogen fixation, following by a detailed discussion of each type of mechanism.

We report a simple solvothermal method for the synthesis of monodisperse magnetite nanoparticles with a controlled particle size within the range of 40 to 200 nm from available and inexpensive single iron precursor (FeCl 3) and, as co-capping agents, sodium acetate and ethylene diamine. The particle size can be easily controlled by the reaction time of synthesis. Transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques were used to investigate the obtained particles. The results revealed that the resulting iron oxide particles exhibit a single magnetite Fe 3 O 4 phase and high stability in air even for four months. The high air stability of these magnetite could be due to the surfactant capped on the particle surface. This method of synthesis has some advantages including simplicity, high product quality, and acceptable reproducibility. Therefore, the magnetite particles can be used for different applications such as in catalysis and drug delivery.

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