The structure and magnetic properties of Fe3N as a photocatalyst applied in hydrogen generation induced by visible light

Abstract

Fe₃N can be efficiently synthesized from an iron-ethanediamine precursor, whose diameter can be controlled by the synergistic effect of acetone and ethanediamine. As-synthesized Fe₃N exhibits a soft magnetic behavior, high specific magnetization (83.74 emu g⁻¹ at 17.5 kOe with a remanent squareness of 6.68%), and shows potential application in information storage. Furthermore, a series of organic amines with different structures are employed to controllably synthesize Fe₃N and Fe₃C, which is employed to investigate the possible route for fabricating Fe₃N and effectively develops the preparation of Fe₃N via a sol–gel route. Moreover, hydrogen generation induced by visible light using the as-synthesized Fe₃N was investigated, and it was found that Fe₃N showed a stable catalytic activity of 218.4 μmol g⁻¹ in 8 h, which indicates that the as-synthesized Fe₃N can be regarded as a potential photocatalyst for hydrogen generation.