Microwave-assisted fabrication of 1D/2D CeO₂/Bi₂MoO₆ heterojunction for efficient photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to CH₃OH

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to fuels via visible light is regarded as a highly promising sustainable technology to address resource depletion and environmental apprehensions. However, the elevation of photocatalytic performance is limited due to some drawbacks of isolated catalysts such as poor CO₂ adsorption performance, inadequate utilization of visible light, and rapid recombination of photo-generated carriers. Herein, a series of novel heterojunction catalysts, 1D/2D CeO₂/Bi₂MoO₆ (CBMO-X), were fabricated utilizing the microwave-assisted method for the photocatalytic reduction of CO₂. The CH₃OH yield of the optimized CBMO-10 composite material reached 4.31 μmol⋅g⁻¹⋅h⁻¹ with excellent stability and structural integrity. Through a series of characterizations, it was found that the introduced CeO₂ nanorods served as bifunctional sites for CO₂ adsorption and photoelectron accumulation, effectively promoting CO₂ conversion under visible light. In addition, CBMO-X exhibited faster photo-generated carriers migration rate due to the formation of the II-scheme heterojunction, which improved the photocatalytic performance obviously. Furthermore, the density functional theory (DFT) calculations and in situ XPS were used to investigate the carrier migration paths on the surface of composite materials. This work provided a novel strategy for the design of photocatalysts for efficient CO₂ conversion.