Microwave-assisted construction of Bi₂MoO₆/g-C₃N₄ heterostructure for boosting photocatalytic CO₂ conversion

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction can simultaneously alleviate the energy crisis and solve environmental issues. Nevertheless, it is still challenging for designing photocatalysts with efficient carrier mobility in rational. Herein, the Bi₂MoO₆/g-C₃N₄ (BMO/CN) heterostructure was constructed through a microwave-assisted which could enhance the construction of two-dimensional and two-dimensional (2D/2D) structures. The 2D/2D BMO/CN heterojunction possessed excellent charge separation efficiency which exhibited superior performance on photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. It was shown by the characterization that the (131) surface of Bi₂MoO₆ was constructed with the (100) surface of g-C₃N₄. The work functions of Bi₂MoO₆ and g-C₃N₄ were determined to be 4.57 and 4.22 eV, respectively, which suggested the type-II heterojunction was formed. The formation of CO and CH₃OH over the optimized BMO/CN-30% catalyst reached 2.44 and 3.61 µmol⋅g⁻¹⋅h⁻¹, respectively. The immediate products of HCO₃^- were observed within in-situ FT-IR to further certify the evolution of CH₃OH. This work highlighted a microwave-assisted strategy to build a heterojunction structure for enhancing photoreduction CO₂.