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Alkali Etching of Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets for Enhanced Photocatalytic N 2 Reduction to NH 3
Author(s) -
Zhao Yunxuan,
Zheng Lirong,
Shi Run,
Zhang Shuai,
Bian Xuanang,
Wu Fan,
Cao Xingzhong,
Waterhouse Geoffrey I. N.,
Zhang Tierui
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.202002199
Subject(s) - hydroxide , photocatalysis , materials science , layered double hydroxides , aqueous solution , alkali metal , reducing agent , catalysis , etching (microfabrication) , adsorption , inorganic chemistry , metal , ammonia , water splitting , oxygen , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , chemistry , layer (electronics) , organic chemistry , metallurgy , engineering
Layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets show good activity in a wide range of photoreactions, with this activity being generally attributable to an abundance of surface oxygen vacancies or coordinatively unsaturated metal cations in the nanosheets which serve as active sites for reactant adsorption and activation. Recently, LDH nanosheets have been shown to be very effective for photocatalytic N 2 reduction to NH 3 using water as the reducing agent. Herein, it is demonstrated that a simple pretreatment of ZnCr‐LDH, ZnAl‐LDH, and NiAl‐LDH nanosheets with aqueous NaOH can greatly enhance the concentration of oxygen vacancies and low coordination metal centers in the nanosheets, thus significantly enhancing their photocatalytic activity for N 2 reduction to NH 3 under UV–vis irradiation (without the need for added sacrificial agents or cocatalysts). The facile alkali etching strategy introduced here is expected to be widely adopted in the future development of high‐performance LDH photocatalysts for ammonia production and other challenging chemical transformations (e.g., CO 2 reduction and water splitting).