Synthesis And Photocatalytic Performance Of Rare Earth Doped Bismuth Vanadate Nanomaterials

Recently, two major problems, the environmental pollution and the energy shortage, have been more and more serious with the development of economy. To resolve the two problems, visible-light-driven semiconductor photocatalysis is highly expected to be an ideal "green" technology for conversion of solar energy and photo-oxidation of organic pollutants, and has been becoming a research highlight in recent years, due to the direct use of solar energy and depuration without generating harmful by-products. However, the absorption of visible light and photocatalytic efficiency is still quite low for traditional visible-light-driven photocatalystic materials, which limits the practice application of the visible-light photocatalytic technique. Therefore, design and synthesis of visible-light-driven photocatalyst with high efficient is one of great significance to promote the practicality of visible-light photocatalytic technique. The paper studies the synthesis and properties of novel bismuth vanadate photocatalyst, and further probes the way to further improve the visible-light-driven photocatalytic efficiency. The details are summarized as follows:1. Using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as surface-active agent, olive-like BiV04has been successfully synthesized for the first time by a simple hydrothermal method, employing Bi(NO3)3and NaVO3as precursor sources. Contrast experiments indicate that the selection of surface-active agent and the reaction temperature play important roles for the formation of olive-like BiV04. A possible formation mechanism was proposed based on the evolution of the morphology. The visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity of the olive-like BiV04was determined by degradation of rhodamine (RhB) molecules. To enhance the photocatalytic efficiency, scavenger was added under the same condition.2. Different rare earth doped olive-like BiV04have been successfully synthesized. The result shows that the visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity was improved by degradation of rhodamine (RhB) molecules under visible light irradiation. It is expected to provide an effective way to synthesize new visible-light-driven photocatalysts and enhance the photocatalytic efficiency.