Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation over flower-like molecular cobalt phthalocyanine@ZnIn2S4 heterojunctions under visible-light irradiation

Molecular catalysts (such as metal phthalocyanine (Pc) molecules) have been widely utilized in homogeneous catalytic systems. However, its practical application is still hindered by the weak stability and difficulty to recycle molecular catalysts from the homogeneous solution. An attractive strategy was adopted by combining the molecular Pc catalysts with an inorganic semiconductor, which can solve the recycling issue and improve the photo-induced charge separation simultaneously. Herein, we integrated a molecular Pc catalyst and a spiky-like ZnIn 2 S 4 to conduct the photocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (PNRR). The spiky-like composites of ZnIn 2 S 4 @Pc demonstrated superior PNRR activity without any sacrificial hole capture (156.59 µmol g −1 h −1 ), which is contributed by the enhanced light harvesting and charge separation induced by the dimension-matched combination.