Solar-Driven Low Carbon Fuel and Value-Added Chemicals: An Exemplification in Carbon Upscaling and Biomass Conversion via Bi2MoO6/K+ Intercalated Carbon Nitride Photocatalyst

Photocatalytic carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction in synergism with biomass-based alcohol conversion is a sustainable strategy to maintain a carbon-neutral cycle along with the synthesis of fine chemicals. Herein, we report a heterostructure of potassium (K⁺) intercalated carbon nitride (K-CN) with Bi₂MoO₆ (BMO) forming a Z-scheme BMO/K-CN as photocatalyst. We observed that the 5BMO/K-CN heterostructure achieves the highest CO production rate (21 mmol g^–1h^–1) along with biomass-based para-methoxybenzyl alcohol (p-MeOBA) conversion to the corresponding aldehyde by 31% in 6 h under simulated solar light. AQY for the CO production at λ = 400 nm was estimated as 14.21%. Z-scheme formation was verified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies, and photoluminescence (PL) experiment leading to better charge separation and migration that resulted in remarkable photocatalytic performance. Further, more insights regarding structure–activity correlation of 5BMO/K-CN were explored through EPR experiments. Thus, the current work features a sustainable approach for carbon upscaling and biomass conversion into solar fuels and fine chemicals using the intercalated carbon nitride system.