Abstract
Ammonia (NH3) is one of the key agricultural fertilizers and to date, industries are using the conventional Haber-Bosh process for the synthesis of NH3 which requires high temperature and energy. To overcome such challenges and to find a sustainable alternative process, researchers are focusing on the photocatalytic nitrogen fixation process. Recently, the effective utilization of sunlight has been proposed via photocatalytic water splitting for producing green energy resource, hydrogen. Inspired by this phenomenon, the production of ammonia via nitrogen, water and sunlight has been attracted many efforts. Photocatalytic N2 fixation presents a green and sustainable ammonia synthesis pathway. Currently, the strategies for development of efficient photocatalyst for nitrogen fixation is primarily concentrated on creating active sites or loading transition metal to facilitate the charge separation and weaken the N–N triple bond. In this investigation, we review the literature knowledge about the photocatalysis phenomena and the most recent developments on the semiconductor nanocomposites for nitrogen fixation, following by a detailed discussion of each type of mechanism.
Highlights
In this current century, the climate changes and energy production are some of the most significant and important challenges that are being faced by the people in the world
Maeda et al report that loading both Rh/Cr2 O3 and Mn2 O3 supported on GaN:ZnO can effectively promote overall water splitting under visible light the quantum yield of this system was relatively low [24]
Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) labels the collective charge carrier oscillations in metal nanoparticle created by an incident field that resonant with the periodic movement of the negative charge against the positive nuclei background [25]
Summary
The climate changes and energy production are some of the most significant and important challenges that are being faced by the people in the world In this direction, ammonia (NH3 ) and the associated chemicals could provide an alternative energy resource. The utilization of natural gas as a source of H2 obtained by steam/gas reforming into the production of ammonia takes up about 1–2% world energy every year and belches out hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 annually [1,2]. It is is of of aa considerable considerable significance significance to to develop develop the the low-energy consumption, sustainable and eco-friendly process to manufacture.
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