Highly Selective Production of Ethanol Over Hierarchical Bi@Bi2MoO6 Composite via Bicarbonate‐Assisted Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction

Abstract Photocatalytic CO 2 reduction is a sustainable and inexpensive method to solve the energy crisis and the greenhouse effect. However, the major stumbling blocks such as poor product selectivity, low yield of the multi‐carbon products, and serious recombination of electron‐hole pairs hinder practical application of photocatalysts. Herein, a high‐performance Bi@Bi 2 MoO 6 photocatalyst, Bi nanoparticles grown on the surface of Bi 2 MoO 6 nanosheets with oxygen vacancies, was fabricated via a simple solvothermal approach. Benefiting from the abundant active sites and effective separation of photogenerated carriers of Bi 2 MoO 6 nanosheets, and the localized surface plasmon resonance effect of Bi nanoparticles, the Bi@Bi 2 MoO 6 sample exhibited great photocatalytic CO 2 reduction activity. Furthermore, adding NaHCO 3 into the system not only significantly increased the C 2 H 5 OH generation rate but also enhanced the product selectivity. In the photocatalytic measurement (0.17 mol L −1 CO 2 ‐saturated NaHCO 3 solution), the highest formation rates of CO, CH 3 OH, and C 2 H 5 OH were reached at 0.85, 0.59, and 17.93 μmol g −1 h −1 (≈92 % selectivity), respectively.