The catalytic conversion of nitrogen to ammonia is one of the most important processes in nature and chemical industry. However, the traditional Haber-Bosch process of ammonia synthesis consumes substantial energy and emits a large amount of carbon dioxide. Solar-driven nitrogen fixation holds great promise for the reduction of energy consumption and environmental pollution. On the basis of both experimental results and density functional theory calculations, here we report that the oxygen vacancy engineering on ultrathin BiOBr nanosheets can greatly enhance the performance for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. Through the addition of polymetric surfactant (polyvinylpyrrolidone, PVP) in the synthesis process, VO-BiOBr nanosheets with desirable oxygen vacancies and dominant exposed {001} facets were successfully prepared, which effectively promote the adsorption of inert nitrogen molecules at ambient condition and facilitate the separation of photoexcited electrons and holes. The oxygen defects narrow the bandgap of VO-BiOBr photocatalyst and lower the energy requirement of exciton generation. In the case of the specific surface areas are almost equal, the VO-BiOBr nanosheets display a highly improved photocatalytic ammonia production rate (54.70 μmol·g-1·h-1), which is nearly 10 times higher than that of the BiOBr nanoplates without oxygen vacancies (5.75 μmol·g-1·h-1). The oxygen vacancy engineering on semiconductive nanomaterials provides a promising way for rational design of catalysts to boost the rate of ammonia synthesis under mild conditions.
Keywords: Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation; defect and bandgap modulation; oxygen vacancies engineering; ultrathin bismuth oxybromide nanosheets.