Breakthrough photothermal ammonia decomposition via low-barrier Ni-CeO<sub>2-x</sub> interfaces on carbon nanotubes.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41407668.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-66325-3 and PMC identifier 12749141.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Efficient ammonia decomposition is crucial for hydrogen economy, but inexpensive Ni catalysts require excessively high temperatures due to limited N-N coupling. Here, we overcome this challenge by constructing a photothermal catalyst with closely interfaced, defect-rich CeO<sub>2-x</sub> nanodomains and electron-rich Ni nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes. The Ni-CeO<sub>2-x</sub>/CNTs catalyst achieves a hydrogen production rate of 298.4 mmol g<sub>cat</sub><sup>-1</sup> min<sup>-1</sup> under full-spectrum light irradiation, which exceeds that of most reported Ru catalysts, and maintained stable activity for over 50 h in continuous-flow operation. The high performance arises from the synergistic effect of thermally promoted photocatalytic N-H bond cleavage and a largely reduced N-N coupling barrier, enabled by efficient photothermal conversion of carbon nanotubes and the up-shifted d-band center of the Ce-Ov-Ni interface (Ov = oxygen vacancy).