Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
Publication date: 16th December 2024
Nitrogen is an essential element for the growth and development of life on Earth.[1] Despite its abundance in the atmosphere, the fixation of nitrogen is challenging due to the stability of the nitrogen triple bond. Therefore, artificial nitrogen fixation methods are needed to meet the ever-growing demand for nitrogen-containing compounds. The Haber-Bosch process is the most important process for artificial nitrogen fixation, which produces approximately 200 million tons of ammonia yearly.[2] However, the environmental impact of this process is substantial.[3]
Photocatalytic nitrogen reduction using molecular nitrogen and water is one promising approach for sustainable ammonia production. Therefore, this work focuses on the development of suitable photocatalysts for the photocatalytic ammonia production and the influence of elevated temperature and pressure conditions on the photocatalytic activity.
Bismuth oxyhalides are promising photocatalysts for this reaction due to their well-fitting band positions. They exhibit relatively small band gaps and can be excited by visible light, which is advantageous when utilizing sunlight as sustainable energy source. We investigate various modifications of the bismuth oxyhalides to increase their photocatalytic activity. This includes the photodeposition of noble metals on the catalyst surface and the formation of heterojunctions. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the modified photocatalysts can be ascribed to a reduced recombination rate of the photoinduced charge carriers and to additional sites for nitrogen binding and activation.[4]
Despite the increased photocatalytic activity, only low yields of ammonia are achieved in the reaction system used, which consists of gaseous nitrogen, liquid water and a solid catalyst. This is attributed to the low solubility of nitrogen in water and its slow diffusion to the catalyst surface. In oder to overcome this limitation, it is being investigated whether nitrogen can be photocatalytically activated in the gas phase and effectively converted to ammonia with gaseous hydrogen.
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