Recently, the latest achievement of amorphous Mo/C3N4 photocatalyst was published on Applied Catalysis B: Environmental. In this work, for the first time, we found atomically dispersed Mo atoms can be formed on g-C3N4, and induce its amorphous transformation. This amorphous transformation leads to the formation of strong band tails with remarkably enhancing the absorbance edge of Mo-C3N4 up to 750 nm, resulting in almost whole visible-light range absorption. The formation of new Mo-C and Mo-N bonds due to strong interfacial interaction between atomically dispersed Mo atoms and g-C3N4 provide new electron and hole transport pathways to accelerate the separation of charge carriers. As a result, amorphous Mo/C3N4 (a-Mo/C3N4) reveals excellent photoreduction of CO2, yielding CO and H2 productions of 18 and 37 μmol g−1 h−1 under visible-light illumination (λ > 420 nm), which manifests a remarkable 10.6- and 4-folds enhancement of that over crystalline g-C3N4. This finding provides a conceptually different approach to fabricate high-efficient photocatalyst through the strong interfacial interaction between atomically dispersed metal atoms and host.
Full Article: Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 2019, 250, 273-279.
