Regulating concentration of surface oxygen vacancies in Bi2MoO6/Bi-MOF for boosting photocatalytic ammonia synthesis

Surface oxygen vacancies (OVs) engineering has been widely adopted as an effective strategy to enhance photocatalytic performance. At present, photocatalytic systems capable of precisely regulating surface OVs concentrations, which could help illuminate the effects of the surface OVs concentration on N2 fixation activity, are still scarce. Herein, bismuth-based metal organic framework (Bi-MOF) was loaded onto the surface of Bi2MoO6 (BMO) as an operable platform, and the OVs concentration in the Bi-MOF component of BMO/Bi-MOF could be regulated by reduction of bismuth ions therein. Experimental results confirm that optimum construction of OVs in the Bi-MOF promotes the photoelectrons transfer from BMO to Bi-MOF, facilitating the activation of N2 at OVs. Consequently, the optimized catalyst shows superior performance in NH3 production, which reaches 125.78 μmol h−1 g−1, 21.4 higher than that of BMO. This work underline the significance of regulating surface OVs concentration, providing inspiration for the development of efficient OVs-modified photocatalysts.