Enhanced Photocatalytic Synthesis of Urea from co‐Reduction of N<sub>2</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> on Z‐Schematic SrTiO<sub>3</sub>‐FeS‐CoWO<sub>4</sub> Heterostructure
Muhammad Irfan Ahmad, Yanming Liu, Yaqi Wang, Peike Cao, Hongtao Yu, Houfen Li, Shuo Chen, Xie Quan
Abstract
Abstract The photocatalytic co‐reduction of CO 2 and N 2 is a sustainable method for urea synthesis under mild conditions. However, high‐yield synthesis of urea is a challenge due to the sluggish kinetics of the C−N coupling reaction. Herein, we have successfully engineered a Z‐scheme photocatalyst, SrTiO 3 ‐FeS‐CoWO 4 , for boosting photocatalytic urea synthesis via enhancing the initial CO 2 and N 2 adsorption step and reducing the energy barrier for the C−N coupling reaction. A high urea yield of 8054.2 μg ⋅ g cat −1 ⋅ h −1 was achieved on SrTiO 3 ‐FeS‐CoWO 4 , which was significantly higher than the state‐of‐the‐art. The SrTiO 3 ‐FeS‐CoWO 4 Z‐scheme photocatalyst, with accelerated charge transfer by FeS, not only had dual active sites for the chemical adsorption and activation of CO 2 and N 2 , but also retained the high conduction band (−1.50 eV) and accelerated supply of electrons and protons, which are responsible for its good photoreduction activity and significantly reduced energy barrier for the rate‐determining step of C−N coupling reaction.