Synergistic Spatial Confining Effect and O Vacancy in WO<sub>3</sub> Hollow Sphere for Enhanced N<sub>2</sub> Reduction
Yuzhou Xia,
Xinghe Xia,
Shuying Zhu,
Ruowen Liang,
Guiyang Yan,
Feng Chen,
Xuxu Wang
Affiliations
Yuzhou Xia
College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
Xinghe Xia
College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
Shuying Zhu
College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
Ruowen Liang
Fujian Province University Key Laboratory of Green Energy and Environment Catalysis, Ningde Normal University, Ningde 352100, China
Guiyang Yan
Fujian Province University Key Laboratory of Green Energy and Environment Catalysis, Ningde Normal University, Ningde 352100, China
Feng Chen
Fujian Province University Key Laboratory of Green Energy and Environment Catalysis, Ningde Normal University, Ningde 352100, China
Xuxu Wang
State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, Research Institute of Photocatalysis, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
Visible-light-driven N2 reduction into NH3 in pure H2O provides an energy-saving alternative to the Haber–Bosch process for ammonia synthesizing. However, the thermodynamic stability of N≡N and low water solubility of N2 remain the key bottlenecks. Here, we propose a solution by developing a WO3−x hollow sphere with oxygen vacancies. Experimental analysis reveals that the hollow sphere structure greatly promotes the enrichment of N2 molecules in the inner cavity and facilitates the chemisorption of N2 onto WO3−x-HS. The outer layer’s thin shell facilitates the photogenerated charge transfer and the full exposure of O vacancies as active sites. O vacancies exposed on the surface accelerate the activation of N≡N triple bonds. As such, the optimized catalyst shows a NH3 generation rate of 140.08 μmol g−1 h−1, which is 7.94 times higher than the counterpart WO3-bulk.
