Advances in modification of Bi2MoO6 and its photocatalysis: A review

Nowadays, photocatalytic semiconductor technology has become a research hotspot because of its outstanding advantages in solving energy and environment problems. Among the numerous photocatalysts, Bi2MoO6 (BMO), as a member of Aurivillius family, with the advantages of low cost, clean and efficient, adjustable band gap of 2.5–2.8 eV, visible light response, etc., shows great promise in the degradation of water pollutants, air purification, bacterial inhibition, photolysis of water, carbon dioxide reduction and nitrogen fixation. However, due to the weak absorption of visible light, the slow migration rate of photogenerated carriers, the easy coincidence of electron hole pairs and the low quantum yield, the development of single BMO has been greatly limited. Fortunately, it still has a large space for modification and exploration of BMO to enhance its photocatalytic performance. At present, there are many modification methods to improve the photocatalytic activity of BMO. The construction of heterojunction is beneficial to improving the light absorption and charge transfer efficiency. The introduction of oxygen vacancies can adjust the band gap of BMO and provide more active sites for the photocatalytic. Elemental doping is helpful for introducing impurity energy levels and improving the intrinsic activity of BMO. This review provides a comprehensive summary of BMO modification methods. Firstly, the review summarized the structural characteristics and band structure of BMO. Then, three highly favored strategies of modification BMO were discussed, including heterojunction construction, oxygen vacancy construction and element doping. Finally, the potential applications and unsolved problems of BMO are presented for further study.