Electronic metal-support interaction via defective-induced platinum modified BiOBr for photocatalytic N2 fixation

Designing atomic-scale catalytic sites to facilitate N2 adsorption and transport of photogenerated electrons to the target active sites offers new opportunities to achieve highly-efficiently photocatalytic N2 reduction reactions. Herein, Pt was photodeposited on BiOBr along with formation of oxygen vacancies (OVs) under ultraviolet light. The modulation of chemical states of Pt and the formation of electron metal-support interactions (EMSI) between BOB and Pt facilitated the charge transfer between the modifiers (i.e. Pt and OVs) and the support (i.e. BiOBr). The production rate of ammonia on Pt and OVs co-modified BiOBr reached 23.8 μmol g−1 h−1, which was much higher than that either on OVs-BiOBr or pristine BiOBr. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that EMSI effect led to a significant charge redistribution between Pt and BOBr carriers, whereby Pt doping could significantly reduce energy barrier of N2 hydrogenation process to facilitate photocatalytic N2 reduction.