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Photocatalytic reduction of nitrate ( NO 3 − ) is a green and potentially inexpensive technique for reducing NO 3 − pollution in ground water. TiO 2 -based photocatalysts have been studied extensively for this purpose. In the present study, the semiconducting catalyst CuFe 0.7 Cr 0.3 S 2 was applied to NO 3 − reduction. Loading this catalyst with metal co-catalysts (Ru, Au, Cu, Ag, Pt, and Pd) greatly increased the rate of NO 3 − reduction and the N 2 selectivity. In addition, there was a synergistic enhancement of the photocatalytic performance when the catalyst was loaded two co-catalysts. For example, the catalyst loaded with Pd and Au at mass fractions of 0.75% and 3%, respectively, could photocatalyze the complete reduction of NO 3 − in a 100 ppm N aqueous solution with 100% N 2 selectivity in less than 5 h with UV irradiation. However, with an inner irradiation from a full-arc Xe lamp, the NO 3 − conversion rate reduced to 0.065 mg N/h, probably because of the low density of the photoexcited electrons. The results show the potential of metal sulfides for photocatalytic reduction of NO 3 − , and the possibility of use of visible light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic nitrogen (N 2) fixation provides a green avenue for the production of ammonia (NH 3), which is extremely significant for global biogeochemical cycle. However, there is still lack of highly efficient catalyst to improve the N 2 photofixation efficiency. In this work, oxygen vacancy engineered perovskite SrTiO 3 materials have been prepared by post reduction using lithium alkylamine solution and served as effective catalysts for visible-light-driven N 2 -to-NH 3 conversion. The formation and concentration of oxygen vacancies were confirmed by electron paramagnetic resonance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analyses. The SrTiO 3 catalyst with optimized oxygen vacancies concentration exhibited improved photocatalytic N 2 reduction rate of 306.87 μmol·g−1·h−1, which is approach ten-fold higher than that of pristine SrTiO 3. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurements reveal that optimum amount of oxygen vacancies can promote the effective adsorption of N 2 molecules and improve the photocatalytic performance by facilitating the fast separation of photo-generated charge carriers. Moreover, the as-fabricated defective SrTiO 3 exhibited outstanding stability, which makes it emerge the promising potential for further practical applications. This work offers a feasible method for the design of high performance photocatalysts through defect engineering. • Synthesized defective SrTiO 3 catalysts by lithium alkylamine solution reduction. • Oxygen vacancies regulation to improve the photocatalytic NRR activity for SrTiO 3. • About ten-fold NH 3 formation rate (873.48 μmol·g−1·h−1) to original SrTiO 3. • Defective SrTiO 3 suppressed the recombination of the photogenerated carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The (Fe x , Co y)-NG/mpg-C 3 N 4 materials exhibited excellent activity due to the synergistic effect of well-defined dual sites. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction is a promising and powerful approach to replace traditional fossil fuels. Herein, we have fabricated Fe, Co dual single atoms dispersed on nitrogen-doped graphene ((Fe x , Co y)-NG) by freeze-drying method, which can as a highly efficient co-catalyst. The (Fe x , Co y)-NG loaded mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (mpg-C 3 N 4) exhibits an excellently high performance for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The high activity can belong to two ways: (i) the ultrathin mpg-C 3 N 4 not only increases the absorption and active sites but also shortens the charge migration distance; (ii) The nitrogen functional groups from NG can provide abundant coordination sites to evenly bind Fe and Co atoms. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performances (Fe x , Co y)-NG co-catalyst with different content ratios of Fe atoms and Co atoms were also investigated. The optimized hydrogen production rate (1958 μmol g−1) of 5 wt% (Fe 0.2 , Co 0.8)-NG/mpg-C 3 N 4 is obviously higher compared to the monometallic counterparts (5 wt% Fe-NG/mpg-C 3 N 4 or 5 wt% Co-NG/mpg-C 3 N 4). The higher photoactivities are due to the synergistic effect between Fe and Co. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]