Surface oxygen vacancies of Pd/Bi2MoO6-x acts as “Electron Bridge” to promote photocatalytic selective oxidation of alcohol

[Display omitted] •“Electron Bridge” effect of surface oxygen vacancies (SOVs) in Pd/BMO-SOVs was firstly proposed.•“Electron Bridge” effect of SOVs can transfer photogenerated electrons from Bi2MoO6-x to Pd.•SOVs promote photoinduced carriers’ separation and utilization efficiency of Pd active sites.•Pd/BMO-SOVs exhibited superior photocatalytic activity for blue LED driven selective oxidation. The recombination of photogenerated carriers seriously restricts their utilization efficiency in photocatalysis. Herein, surface oxygen vacancies (SOVs) were constructed in Pd-Bi2MoO6 interface to bridge ultra-low loading Pd cluster and Bi2MoO6 semiconductor (Pd/BMO-SOVs). It was found SOVs in Pd/Bi2MoO6-x serve as “Electron Bridge” to bridge ultra-low loading Pd cluster and Bi2MoO6-x, thus tremendously enhance utilization efficiency of photoexcited carriers and ultra-low loading Pd active sites for blue LED driven selective oxidation reaction. The Pd(0.05)/Bi2MoO6-SOVs exhibited 57.8 % conversion for selection oxidation of benzyl which are 6.5, 3.3 and 2.1 times higher than pristine Bi2MoO6, Bi2MoO6-x and Pd(0.05)/Bi2MoO6. Combined with theoretical calculations, SOVs was proposed as “Electron Bridge” to transfer photogenerated electrons from Bi2MoO6-x to ultra-low loading Pd clusters, thus greatly boosting separation and utilization efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs.