New Lewis acidic ionic liquid coupled carbon shell coated defective WO₃ for efficient photocatalytic N₂ reduction

Herein, a new strategy to enhance the nitrogen concentration around the photocatalyst for photocatalytic nitrogen reduction was proposed. And new type of acidic ionic liquid (IL) coupled defective tungsten oxide coated with carbon shell (W@C) was designed and synthesized. The results show that the interaction force between IL and nitrogen is stronger than that between water and nitrogen, which increases the concentration of nitrogen around the tungsten oxide catalyst. In addition, the carbon shell with a hollow structure has a molecular enrichment effect, which can effectively achieve nitrogen enrichment and reduce IL escape. Finally, the ammonia synthesis performance of acidic IL coupled W@C is 52.6 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹, which is about 9 times and 2 times of tungsten oxide and W@C sample, respectively. This work fully reveals the importance of designing the catalyst structure reasonably and increasing the nitrogen concentration around the catalyst to improve the photocatalytic nitrogen reduction performance.