Engineering of bionic Fe/Mo bimetallene for boosting the photocatalytic nitrogen reduction performance

The “FeMo cofactors” in biological nitrogenase play a decisive role in nitrogen reduction. Herein, a novel bionic Fe/Mo bimetallene was applied in photocatalytic nitrogen reduction. The surface coating Fe/Mo bimetallene of Bi 2 Mo 0.3 W 0.7 O 6 (BMWO) nanocrystals could effectively promote the separation and transportation of photogenerated carriers by multi–electron redox reactions and deliver 2.8 times longer photo–carrier lifetime. Consequently, the nitrogen fixation activity of Fe/Mo bimetallene–coated BMWO nanocrystal photocatalyst was obviously enhanced (218.93 μmol g –1 h −1 ), which was about 4.8 times that of unmodified BMWO nanocrystals. This work provides a novel approach to design bionic Fe/Mo bimetallene–modified inorganic semiconductor photocatalysts for nitrogen reduction.