Assisting Bi2MoO6 microspheres with phenolic resin-based ACSs as attractive tailor-made supporter for highly-efficient photocatalytic CO2 reduction

It is rather essential to design glorious system with high CO2 adsorption capacity and electron migration efficiency for improving selective and effective CO2 reduction into solar fuels. Here, as-synthesized phenolic resin spheres via suspension polymerization were carbonized and activated by water vapor to obtain activated carbon spheres (ACSs). Subsequently, Bi2MoO6/ACSs were prepared via hydrothermal-impregnated method. The systematical characterizations of samples, including XRD, XPS, SEM, EDX, DRS, BET, PL, CO2 adsorption isotherm, EIS and transient photocurrent, were analyzed. The results clearly demonstrated that Bi2MoO6 with suitable oxidation reduction potentials and bandgap and ACSs with admirable CO2 adsorption and electrical conductivity not only enhanced separation efficiency of photoindued electron-hole pair, but also displayed as 1.8 times CO2 reduction activity to CO as single Bi2MoO6 sample under Xe-lamp irradiation. Finally, a concerned photocatalytic CO2 reduction mechanism was proposed and investigated. Our findings should provide innovative guidance for designing a series of photocatalytic CO2 reduction materials with highly efficient and selective ability.