Temperature fluctuations caused by sunlight represent a form of low-quality thermal energy that is generally insufficient for driving chemical reactions. Here, we designed a ZnO–MXene (Ti₃C₂) heterostructure catalyst, which can harvest solar near-infrared (NIR) energy to drive the sluggish ammonia production reaction using water and N₂ as the feedstock. Our research confirmed that ammonia was produced through a pyroelectric process, rather than a photocatalytic process. The ZnO–MXene heterostructure with ∼20 wt% of Ti₃C₂ exhibited a 6.5-fold improvement in activity compared to bare ZnO. The Ti₃C₂ not only harvests NIR energy to heat up the pyroelectric ZnO, but also traps the pyro electrons from ZnO and co-catalyzes the reduction of N₂ to ammonia. This work offers a novel strategy for ammonia production utilizing the abundant solar NIR energy under ambient conditions.

中文翻译：

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通过热释电催化对 ZnO-MXene （Ti3C2） 异质结构进行近红外驱动 N2 固定


阳光引起的温度波动代表了一种低质量的热能，通常不足以驱动化学反应。在这里，我们设计了一种 ZnO-MXene （Ti₃C₂） 异质结构催化剂，它可以收集太阳能近红外 （NIR） 能量，以水和 N₂ 为原料来驱动缓慢的氨生产反应。我们的研究证实，氨是通过热释电过程而不是光催化过程生产的。与裸露的 ZnO 相比，Ti₃C₂ 含量约为 20 wt% 的 ZnO-MXene 异质结构的活性提高了 6.5 倍。Ti₃C₂ 不仅收集 NIR 能量来加热热释电 ZnO，还捕获 ZnO 中的热释电电子并共同催化 N₂ 还原为氨。这项工作为在环境条件下利用丰富的太阳能 NIR 能量生产氨提供了一种新的策略。