Band structure engineering of bioinspired Fe doped SrMoO4 for enhanced photocatalytic nitrogen reduction performance

Oxygen Vacant Semiconductor Photocatalysts

“…The low-valence-state dopant ion destroys the long-term periodic order of lattice O by substituting the original atoms, and subsequently the OVs emerge to rebalance the charge. [29][30][31][32] UV light irradiation as a physical method is a facile and convenient strategy to construct OVs, which will be replenished and form sufficient light-switchable surface OVs. [33]…”

Recent advances in photocatalytic nitrogen fixation: from active sites to ammonia quantification methods

“…O vacancy is the most common active site in photocatalyst. As a defect, it can capture electrons, adjust the energy band structure of catalyst, 60,61 enlarge the light response range, 33,62 improve the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes, [63][64][65][66][67] introduce more active sites to capture 52,68 and activate gas molecules. 69,70 A recent example, Fan et al synthesized oxygen vacancy-induced In(OH) 3 /carbon nitride (OV-In(OH) 3 /CN) 71 and proved that In(OH) 3 in the heterojunction cannot generate photogenerated electrons under visible light, but its rich oxygen vacancies can receive and capture some excited electrons in g-C 3 N 4 , thereby improving the efficiency of charge separation and chemically adsorbing more nitrogen molecules.…”

Progress and challenges in photocatalytic ammonia synthesis

“…With this in mind, Liu et al also reported a Fe-doped SrMoO4 (FSMO) as a potential candidate for N2 photoreduction. 65 Further studies revealed that the intrinsic bandgap of SrMoO4 could be shrunk from 3.98 eV to 2.93 eV with the increase in Fe doping concentration (from 0 to 5.1%), resulting in the extension of the light adsorption from ultraviolet to visible-light region. Besides that, the Fe doping could induce the formation of surface defects as active sites for N2 adsorption and significantly retard the recombination of electrons and holes, leading to enhanced N2 reduction reaction.…”

“…The surface regulations, including defect engineering and morphology engineering, significantly determine the photocatalytic activity because they can promote the surface adsorption and activation of N2. 23,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][54][55][56][57][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71] The interface modulations, including the modification with cocatalysts and semiconductors, greatly affect the charge transfer and separation efficiency. [89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][109][110][111] We will discuss these factors one by one below.…”