One-Dimensional Shaving-like BiVO4 Nanobelts: Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity with Methylene Blue

Abstract

One-dimensional shaving-like BiVO4 nanobelts were successfully synthesized via the oxide hydrothermal method (OHS), using V2O5 and Bi2O3 as raw materials and PEG 10000 (polyethylene glycol 10000) as a template. Multiple techniques, including XRD, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, UV–Vis, XPS, and photoelectrochemical measurements, were applied to characterize the obtained materials. The thickness of the BiVO4 nanobelt was approximately 10 nm, while the width was approximately 500 nm. EIS results showed that visible-light illumination caused the photogenerated charge of the BiVO4 nanobelts to have a faster transfer and a higher separation efficiency. Photocatalytic experiments indicated that with BiVO4 nanobelts as a catalyst, the degradation rate of MB (methylene blue) was close to 92.4%, and it disintegrated after two hours. Moreover, the pseudo-first-order kinetic model can be used to describe the photodecomposition reaction of MB catalysed by BiVO4 nanobelts. And this excellent photocatalytic activity of the shaving-like BiVO4 nanobelts may be related to their special morphology, narrow band gap (~2.19 eV), faster transfer and the separation efficiency of the photogenerated charge, leading to strong absorption in the visible region and improving the separation of the photogenerated electron–hole pairs. These novel monoclinic BiVO4 nanobelts exhibited great photocatalytic activity and are thus a promising candidate for application in visible-light-responsive photocatalysts.