Construction of upconversion fluoride/attapulgite nanocomposite for visible-light-driven photocatalytic nitrogen fixation

Developing photocatalysts with wide spectrum absorption and strong nitrogen activation is critical for nitrogen fixation under mild conditions. Herein, one-dimensional natural clay attapulgite (ATP) supported YF3:Sm3+ were successfully synthesized via microwave hydrothermal method, and the composites were employed as the catalyst for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation under visible-light irradiation. Results indicated that the production of ammonia reached as high as 41.2 mg·L−1 within 3 h when the molar ratio of Sm3+ and the mass fraction of YF3:Sm3+ were optimized. The enhanced fixation performance is mainly due to that the modified ATP fibber with abundant active sites and the doped fluoride with defective vacancy facilitate the adsorption and activation of N2. Furthermore, the upconversion property of YF3:Sm3+ increases the harvesting of visible-light energy, meanwhile the Z-scheme heterostructure built between YF3:Sm3+ and modified ATP inhibits the recombination of charge carriers and retains high redox potentials for N2 reduction.