Visible-light-induced nitrogen photofixation ability of g-C3N4 nanosheets decorated with MgO nanoparticles

• Published in: Journal of industrial and engineering chemistry (Seoul, Korea) Vol. 84; pp. 185 - 195
• Main Authors: Vesali-Kermani, Elham, Habibi-Yangjeh, Aziz, Ghosh, Srabanti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 25.04.2020; 한국공업화학회
• Subjects: g-C3N4nanosheets/MgO; Nitrogen photofixation; Photocatalytic performance; Visible-light photocatalyst; 화학공학; Visible-light photocatalyst; Nitrogen photofixation; Photocatalytic performance; g-C3N4nanosheets/MgO
• ISSN: 1226-086X; 1876-794X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jiec.2019.12.033

[Display omitted] •g-C3N4 nanosheets/MgO composites as efficient visible-light photocatalysts are reported.•The nanocomposite with 10% of MgO displayed the highest activity in ammonia production.•Activity was 10.8 and 2.8 times higher than bulk g-C3N4 and nanosheets of g-C3N4, respectively.•Effects of solvent, pH, and electron scavenger on the rate of ammonia production were studied. Nitrogen fixation is a natural or artificial process, in which molecular nitrogen is combined with other elements to form more-reactive compounds containing nitrogen elements. In this study, graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets were combined with nanoparticles of MgO to fabricate an efficient binary visible-light-induced photocatalysts (abbreviated as NCN/MgO), and they were applied for the photofixation of nitrogen gas. The synthesized photocatalysts were characterized to investigate the morphology, phase structure, optical, and textural properties. The results displayed that the NCN/MgO (10%) nanocomposite has considerable performance in the nitrogen photofixation reaction compared with the pristine CN and NCN, which is 10.8 and 2.8 times, respectively. The stability of the optimum sample, as a vital characteristic of photocatalyst, was examined in three runs. Also, the effect of MgO loading, calcination temperature, solvent, electron scavenger, pH, and absence of N2 in solution upon the NH4+ production rate was examined. Finally, an anticipated mechanism was proposed for the meaningful nitrogen photofixation enhancement.