Mixed-Valent Cobalt-Modulated Tungsten Trioxide Nanorod Arrays for Improved Photocatalytic N<sub>2</sub> Fixation
Huaiwei Zhang, Qing‐Yu Liu, Yifan Chen, Lang Pei, Liang Bao, Yongjun Yuan
Abstract
The facile photocatalytic N2 fixation enabled by WO3 has attracted more attention. Herein, self-assembly channel WO3·0.5H2O nanorod arrays with rich oxygen vacancies (OVs) by doping subtle Co are demonstrated first, in which Co ion dopants can induce the nanorod array formation. The OVs are produced efficiently and uniformly furtherly around the nanorods. The doped Co species can replace the lattice W6+ at defect sites rather than forming the heterojunction and offer the most of excess OVs. As expected, the NH3 generation rate for the optimized WO·0.5H2O catalyst can achieve 223 and 105 μmol gcal–1 h–1 under full spectrum and visible NIR (λ > 420 nm) light irradiation, respectively. This work provides a feasible method to develop the efficient photocatalysts through doping the active metal elements and defect modulation.