Synergistic Enhancement of Photocatalytic Nitrate Reduction Over Fe‐Doped Bi/Bi 2 WO 6 via Lewis Acidic Sites and Surface Plasmon Resonance
Yacong Yang, YaKun Qu, Zhixiong Yang, Yu Wu, Xiaoguang Zhao, Haibo Yin, Yuning Huo, Zongli XieABSTRACT
Photocatalytic reduction of nitrate (NO 3 − ) to ammonia (NH 3 ) has garnered growing attention as a sustainable route for simultaneous nitrate pollution remediation and value‐added ammonia synthesis under ambient conditions. However, its efficiency remains severely limited by the intrinsically high structural stability of nitrate anions and inefficient charge‐carrier utilization. In this study, a Fe‐doped Bi/Bi 2 WO 6 photocatalyst (H‐Fe‐B/BWO) is constructed via a facile hydrothermal method followed by calcination in a reducing atmosphere. The experimental results reveal that the optimized H‐Fe‐B/BWO exhibits significantly enhanced photocatalytic nitrate reduction performance, achieving an NH 3 production rate of 2.419 mmol g cat −1 h −1 with a high selectivity of 99.3% in the presence of ethylene glycol (EG), representing an approximately 4.5‐fold improvement compared with pristine Bi 2 WO 6 . The remarkable enhancement originates from the synergistic effect between Lewis acidic sites generated by Fe dopants with unsaturated coordination environments and the surface plasmon resonance of metallic Bi, which collectively facilitates nitrate activation and improves charge‐carrier separation and utilization. This work provides a rational strategy for designing efficient photocatalysts for selective NO 3 − ‐to‐NH 3 conversion under environmentally benign conditions, contributing to sustainable nitrogen management and circular economy‐driven resource recovery.