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Updated: Jun 15, 2025
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Published on: December 6, 2021
Utilizing full-spectrum sunlight for ammonia decomposition to hydrogen over GaN nanowires-supported Ru nanoparticles
Jinglin Li1, Bowen Sheng2, Yiqing Chen3
1Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering of Ministry of Education, Research Center for Renewable Synthetic Fuel, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Photo-thermal-coupling ammonia decomposition presents a promising strategy for utilizing the full-spectrum to address the H2 storage and transportation issues. Herein, we exhibit a photo-thermal-catalytic architecture by assembling gallium nitride nanowires-supported ruthenium nanoparticles on a silicon for extracting hydrogen from ammonia aqueous solution in a batch reactor with only sunlight input. The photoexcited charge carriers make a predomination contribution on H2 activity with the assistance of the photothermal effect. Upon concentrated light illumination, the architecture significantly reduces the activation energy barrier from 1.08 to 0.22 eV. As a result, a high turnover number of 3,400,750 is reported during 400 h of continuous light illumination, and the H2 activity per hour is nearly 1000 times higher than that under the pure thermo-catalytic conditions. The reaction mechanism is extensively studied by coordinating experiments, spectroscopic characterizations, and density functional theory calculation. Outdoor tests validate the viability of such a multifunctional architecture for ammonia decomposition toward H2 under natural sunlight.
