Effects of pH on the Morphology and Photocatalytic Performance of BiVO_4 Prepared via Hydrothermal Method

摘要

BiVO_4 with different morphologies were synthesized via a controllable dodecylamine-assisted hydrothermal method. The effect of pH on the crystallinity, morphology and optical absorption property of BiVO_4 was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectra techniques (UV-vis DRS). The photocatalytic efficiencies were evaluated by the degradation of (MB) under visible-light irradiation. It is worthy to note that the obtained monoclinic scheelite BiVO_4 (m-BiVO_4) prepared at pH 1 possessed a spherical microstructure, low band gap energy, and exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity of the samples, decolorizing up to 98.2% of MB upon visible light irradiation for 4h. The reason for the different photocatalytic efficiencies of the BiVO_4 samples obtained at different pH was investigated by considering the structure and morphology.