Synergism of Mo-Dopant and Ag Nanoparticles for Methanol Oxidation on Photoanodes

Photoelectrocatalytic methanol oxidation to formaldehyde by using electric/solar energy is a promising technology. In this work, Ag nanoparticles were decorated on Mo-doped BiVO4 to synthesize Ag/Mo: BiVO4 catalyst. As expected, benefitting from Mo-dopant and plasmonic effect of Ag nanoparticles, formaldehyde production of Ag/Mo: BiVO4 photoanode was 2.2 times higher than pristine BiVO4 photoanode. Faradaic efficiency increased from 19% to 49% in comparison with the pure BiVO4 photoanode.