Preparation Of Nano-bismuth Vanadate Yellow Pigments And Applied Research

Bismuth vanadate is a high performance yellow pigment. It also exhibits various technological properties, such as photocatalytic activity, ferroelasticity, and conductivity. So this material not only can be used as pigment in food, toy, plastics, automobile paint and ink, but also has potential applications in photocatalysis by sunlight. As a typical soft chemical method, the hydrothermal process is promising for preparation of metal oxide nanomatenals because of its many advantages. The method generates highly crystalline products with high purity, narrow size distribution, and low aggregation. The morphology and crystalline form of the products can be controlled by adjusting the hydrothermal reaction conditions. Using this method, many kinds of nanomaterials such as quantum dots (nanoparticles or nanocrystals), 1-dimensional materials (nanofibers, nanobelts, nanotubes and nanorods), 2-dimensional materials (nanosheets or nanoplates) and other nanostructured materials have been prepared. In the present work, we prepared BiVO₄ nanomaterials with different morphologies using a hydrothermal process. The microstructure and fabricating process of BiVO₄ nanomaterials were investigated, the effects of reaction parameters on the product and the relation of the microstructure of the nanomaterials with their properties were also studied.(1) Bismuth vanadate (BiVC>4) nanosheets have been hydrothermally synthesized in the presence of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) as a morphology-directing template. The nanosheets were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with an X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), IR spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM) techniques. The BiVO₄ nanosheets with monoclinic structure, are ca. 10-40 nm thick and show a preferred (010) surface orientation. The formation of the nanosheets proceeds via a two-step crystallization process: first, the amorphous precursor crystallizes to form...