Bi2MoO6 Embedded in 3D Porous N,O-Doped Carbon Nanosheets for Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction

Xue Bai; Lang He; Wenyuan Zhang; Fei Lv; Yayun Zheng; Xirui Kong; Du Wang; Yan Zhao

doi:10.3390/nano13091569

Bi₂MoO₆ Embedded in 3D Porous N,O-Doped Carbon Nanosheets for Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 May 6;13(9):1569. doi: 10.3390/nano13091569.

Authors

Xue Bai¹, Lang He¹, Wenyuan Zhang², Fei Lv¹, Yayun Zheng¹, Xirui Kong¹, Du Wang¹, Yan Zhao¹

Affiliations

¹ The Institute of Technological Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.

Abstract

Artificial photosynthesis is promising to convert solar energy and CO₂ into valuable chemicals, and to alleviate the problems of the greenhouse effect and the climate change crisis. Here, we fabricated a novel photocatalyst by directly growing Bi₂MoO₆ nanosheets on three-dimensional (3D) N,O-doped carbon (NO-C). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) show that the designed photocatalyst ensured the close contact between Bi₂MoO₆ and NO-C, and reduced the stacking of the NO-C layers to provide abundant channels for the diffusion of CO₂, while NO-C can allow for fast electron transfer. The charge transfer in this composite was determined to follow a step-scheme mechanism, which not only facilitates the separation of charge carriers but also retains a strong redox capability. Benefiting from this unique 3D structure and the synergistic effect, BMO/NO-C showed excellent performance in photocatalytic CO₂ reductions. The yields of the best BMO/NO-C catalysts for CH₄ and CO were 9.14 and 14.49 μmol g^-1 h^-1, respectively. This work provides new insights into constructing step-scheme photocatalytic systems with the 3D nanostructures.

Keywords: Bi2MoO6; CO2RR; N,O-doped carbon; photocatalysis.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.