Amorphous engineered cerium oxides photocatalyst for efficient nitrogen fixation

Amorphization Engineering induce the controllable adjustment of oxygen concentration on cerium oxides photocatalyst towards efficient nitrogen fixation. [Display omitted] •Amorphization Engineering is achieved on cerium oxides via reserving Ce(III) from incorporated carbonates pyrolysis.•Controllable introduction of oxygen vacancies is realized in amorphous cerium oxides.•Oxygen vacancies enable the fast carriers separation and active sites on cerium oxides for nitrogen fixation. Amorphization engineering exhibits the tremendous development potential and visible prospect for inert nitrogen molecules activation by virtue of captivating structure features. In this work, we realize amorphization engineering on cerium oxides via reserving abnormal Ce(III) ions from carbonate. The intentional incorporation of amorphous structure can controllably induce a number of oxygen vacancies, which is avails for facilitating the carriers separation and N2 cleavage. The presence of oxygen vacancies endows amorphization engineered cerium oxides (A-CeOx) outstanding performance for photocatalytic nitrogen at ambient (109 μmol g−1 h−1). These findings will help to design amorphous structure, understand catalytic mechanism and spur development of solar driven technologies for N2 fixation.