Heterojunction-based photocatalytic nitrogen fixation: principles and current progress

Autor: Michal Machovsky, Ali Can Guler, Ivo Kuritka, Milan Masar, Michal Urbanek, Hassan Ali
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nanoscale Advances. 3:6358-6372
ISSN: 2516-0230
DOI: 10.1039/d1na00565k
Popis: Nitrogen fixation is considered one of the grand challenges of the 21st century for achieving the ultimate vision of a green and sustainable future. It is crucial to develop and design sustainable nitrogen fixation techniques with minimal environmental impact as an alternative to the energy-cost intensive Haber-Bosch process. Heterojunction-based photocatalysis has recently emerged as a viable solution for the various environmental and energy issues, including nitrogen fixation. The primary advantages of heterojunction photocatalysts are spatially separated photogenerated charge carriers while retaining high oxidation and reduction potentials of the individual components, enabling visible light-harvesting. This review summarises the fundamental principles of photocatalytic heterostructures, the reaction mechanism of the nitrogen reduction reaction, ammonia detection methods, and the current progress of heterostructured photocatalysts for nitrogen fixation. Finally, future challenges and prospects are briefly discussed for the emerging field of heterostructured photocatalytic nitrogen fixation.
Databáze: OpenAIRE