Abstract
Artificial photosynthesis is promising to convert solar energy and CO(2) 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 Bi(2)MoO(6) 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 Bi(2)MoO(6) and NO-C, and reduced the stacking of the NO-C layers to provide abundant channels for the diffusion of CO(2), 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 CO(2) reductions. The yields of the best BMO/NO-C catalysts for CH(4) 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.