Ru and RuOx decorated carbon nitride for efficient ammonia photosynthesis.

Photocatalytic ammonia synthesis is a promising strategy for sustainable development compared to the energy-intensive industrial Haber-Bosch approach. Herein, a ternary heterostructure that consists of ruthenium species and carbon nitride (C3N4) was rationally explored for ammonia photosynthesis. Compared to the small ammonia yield from the g-C3N4 and Ru/g-C3N4 system, the Ru/RuO2/g-C3N4 system represents 6 times higher activity with excellent stability under full-spectrum irradiation. Such an enhancement is not only due to efficient transfer of electrons and holes to Ru and RuO2, respectively, facilitating both the reduction and oxidation reaction, but also taking advantage of Ru for N[triple bond, length as m-dash]N activation.