Publication date: 28th August 2024
The request for sustainable and renewable energy sources has motivated a significant shift toward innovative methods for producing and storing clean energy through green solar fuels. Photocatalytically active heterojunctions based on metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are drawing important interest for their tuneable ability to promote several redox reactions. This study investigates two composite systems: a classic double perovskite-based, Cs2AgBiCl6/g-C3N4,1 and a vacancy-ordered perovskite-based, Cs2SnBr6/g-C3N4. The first system has been studied and employed for both solar-driven hydrogen generation from chloride media and nitrogen reduction and the second one for nitrogen reduction. The efficiency of the Cs2AgBiCl6/g-C3N4 system depends on the relative amounts of perovskite and carbon nitride to promote the two reactions. Spectroscopic investigations and density functional theory (DFT) modelling reveal that perovskite halide vacancies are primary reactive sites for hydrogen generation and can be, together with g-C3N4 nitrogen vacancies crucial also for nitrogen reduction.1 On these bases, again through a combined experimental and computational approach, we provide a detailed framework of the mechanism supporting the efficient nitrogen reduction reaction to ammonia observed in Cs2SnBr6/g-C3N4 system. The vacancy-ordered perovskite is characterized by a higher surface density of halide vacancies than the double perovskite and then the Cs2SnBr6/g-C3N4 system achieves the highest ammonia evolution rate of 266 μmol g-1 h-1. Photoluminescence studies and differential transmission measurements stress the importance of compositional engineering in enhancing photocatalysis efficiency for both reactions. This work represents a significant advancement in photocatalytic green fuels production, especially in the field of nitrogen photofixation, proposing materials and structures that can potentially improve sustainable ammonia production, thereby contributing to energy independence and reduced carbon emissions.
L.M., A.S., A.P. acknowledge support from the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR) and the University of Pavia through the program “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023–2027. L.M., E.M. and A.L. acknowledge support from the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR) through PRIN Project REVOLUTION (2022HRZH7P). A. P. acknowledges support from the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR) through PRIN Project PHOTOFIX (2022TWKM4X). E.M. and S.C. acknowledge project Ricerca@Cnr PHOTOCAT (CUP B93C21000060006). F.D.A. acknowledges funds by the European Union - NextGenerationEU under the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) National Innovation Ecosystem grant ECS00000041 - VITALITY. S.C. acknowledges support from the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR) through PRIN Project INTERFACE (2022HWWW3S). L.M. and C.T. acknowledge financial support from R.S.E. SpA (Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico).
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.