When: June 11, 2026, online 15:00

Titanium nitride nanoparticles for the photocatalytic reduction of CO₂

Similar to nanostructured gold, surface plasmons can be excited in titanium nitride (TiN) nanomaterials, rendering it a promising material for sustainable solar photocatalysis, free of critical materials such as noble metals. It is well known that the optical properties, especially the light absorption, depend strongly on the particle size and shape. However, while most synthetic approaches rely on harsh conditions, poor size control, oxygenate precursor materials leading to O contaminations and elevated temperatures,^[1–4] a controlled synthetic procedure for the fabrication of TiN nanomaterials at low reaction temperatures is not yet achieved.

In this seminar, we shall focus on two selected aspects of this recently started project. First, first results on the low-temperature wet-chemical synthesis of TiN based on an oxygen-free precursor are discussed. Second, the reduction in H₂ and the adsorption of CO₂ as the first step of a photocatalytic activation is illuminated in-situ by NAP-XPS results.

[1]                            E. G. Gillan, R. B. Kaner, “Rapid Solid-State Synthesis of Refractory Nitrides” Inorg. Chem. 1994, 33, 5693–5700.

[2]                            I. Kim, P. N. Kumta, “Hydrazide sol–gel synthesis of nanostructured titanium nitride: precursor chemistry and phase evolution” J Mater Chem 2003, 13, 2028–2035.

[3]                            S. Kaskel, K. Schlichte, G. Chaplais, M. Khanna, “Synthesis and characterisation of titanium nitride based nanoparticles” J. Mater. Chem. 2003, 13, 1496.

[4]                            R. A. Karaballi, G. Humagain, B. R. A. Fleischman, M. Dasog, “Synthesis of Plasmonic Group‐4 Nitride Nanocrystals by Solid‐State Metathesis” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 3147–3150.