Steering Charge Directional Separation in MXenes/Titanium Dioxide for Efficient Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation

oleh: Nianhua Liu, Rong Tang, Kai Li, Bin Wang, Junze Zhao, Qing Xu, Mengxia Ji, Jiexiang Xia

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-11-01

Deskripsi

Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation has attracted much attention because of its ability to synthesize ammonia under mild conditions. However, the ammonia yield is still greatly limited by the sluggish charge separation and extremely high N<sub>2</sub> dissociation energy. Herein, two-dimensional Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub> MXene ultrathin nanosheets were introduced to construct Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>/TiO<sub>2</sub> composites via electrostatic adsorption for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. The photocatalytic activity experiments showed that after adding 0.1 wt% Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>, the ammonia yield of the Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>/TiO<sub>2</sub> composite reached 67.9 μmol L<sup>−1</sup> after 120 min of light irradiation, nearly 3 times higher than that of the monomer TiO<sub>2</sub>. XPS, DRS, LSV, and FTIR were used to explore the possible photocatalytic nitrogen fixation mechanism. Studies showed that a close interfacial contact has been formed via the bonding mode of =C-O between the Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub> and TiO<sub>2</sub> samples. The formed =C-O bond boosts an oriented photogenerated charge separation and transfer in the Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>/TiO<sub>2</sub> composite. This work provides a promising idea for constructing other efficient MXene-based composite photocatalysts for artificial photosynthesis.