Cu-doped MIL-101(Fe) with enhanced photocatalytic nitrogen fixation performance

The bottlenecks of photocatalytic nitrogen fixation are adsorption and activation of nitrogen, because N–N bond in dinitrogen is one of the strongest bonds in chemistry. Herein, for the first time, Cu-doped MIL-101(Fe) was applications in photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. The photocatalytic nitrogen fixation activity of Cu-MIL-101(Fe) is three times that of MIL-101(Fe). Characteristic of MIL-101(Fe) and Cu-MIL-101(Fe) are systematically compared by XRD, SEM, TEM, BET, PL and energy band structure. These results indicated that the Cu doping not only enlarge the specific surface area from 1413 ​m2/g to 2097 ​m2/g, but also increase the photoreduction capability from −0.13 ​V to −0.7 ​V. These results indicated that nitrogen adsorption and activation capacity can be improved by Cu doping. By combining metal ions doping and components regulation of MOFs, this work provides many future opportunities for enhance photocatalytic nitrogen fixation activity.