Fabrication of Dy-doped BiVO₄ with Enhanced Solar Light Photocatalytic Performance

Abstract

BiVO4 and Dy-doped BiVO4 photocatalysts with different molar ratio of Dy/Bi (1%, 2%, 3%, and 4%) were prepared by a sol–gel method and characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV/Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) techniques, and surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS), respectively. The photocatalytic performance for decolorization of rhodamine B (RhB) aqueous solution under solar light was evaluated, the results show that Dy-doped BiVO4 with about 2%Dy possesses the best photocatalytic activity and the underlying mechanism is suggested.