One-step fabrication of Cu-doped Bi2MoO6 microflower for enhancing performance in photocatalytic nitrogen fixation.

This study enhances the photocatalytic N2 immobilization performance of Bi2MoO6 through Cu doping. Cu-doped Bi2MoO6 was synthesized via a simple solvothermal method. Various characterizations were implemented to examine the influence of Cu doping on the properties of Bi2MoO6. Results indicated that the doped Cu element had a valence state of + 2 and substituted the position of Bi3+. Cu doping exerted minimal effect on the morphology of Bi2MoO6 but largely influenced the energy band structure. The band gap was slightly narrowed, and the conduction band was raised, such that Cu-doped Bi2MoO6 could generate more electrons with stronger reducibility. Moreover, importantly, Cu doping reduced work function and improved charge separation efficiency, which was considered the major cause of enhanced photoactivity. In addition, the Cu-Bi2MoO6 catalyst exhibited higher capability in the adsorption and activation of N2. Under the combined effects of the aforementioned changes, Cu-Bi2MoO6 demonstrated considerably higher photocatalytic efficiency than Bi2MoO6. The optimized NH3 generation rate reached 302 μmol/L g-1h-1 and 157 μmol/L g-1h-1 under simulated solar light and visible light, respectively, both achieving about 2.2 times higher than that of Bi2MoO6. This work provides a successful example of improving photocatalytic N2 fixation, and it may show some light on the design and preparation of heteroatom-doped semiconductor photocatalysts for N2-to-NH3 conversion.