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Interference Effect of Alcohol on Nessler’s Reagent in Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation
journal contribution
posted on 2018-03-04, 00:00 authored by Xiang Gao, Yuanjing Wen, Dan Qu, Li An, Shiliang Luan, Wenshuai Jiang, Xupeng Zong, Xingyuan Liu, Zaicheng SunPhotocatalytic ammonia
synthesis is another important reaction
to mimic natural nitrogen fixation, which has attracted more and more
attention. In recent reports, sacrificial agents are often used to
promote charge separation, and high-activity photocatalysts are discovered
by using Nessler’s reagent method as a detection technique
of ammonia production. However, there is an open question on the rationality
and accuracy of the ammonia production amount in the presence of the
sacrificial agent and Nessler’s reagent detection method. In
this report, P25 TiO2 is employed as a model photocatalyst
and alcohol as sacrificial agent, and both Nessler’s reagent
and cation exchange chromatography are employed as ammonia detection
methods. The different ammonia production amount was found by the
different detection method. HPLC and 1H NMR results indicate
that carbonyl compounds (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acetone)
are produced in the reaction. When the carbonyl compound was added
to the ammonia standard solution, the interference effect on the detection
of ammonia was found in the Nessler’s reagent method. No interference
effect was found in the cation exchange chromatography. Thus, the
Nessler’s reagent is not suitable for ammonia detection in
the presence of alcohol as the sacrificial agent.