Enhanced photocatalytic activity of silver vanadate nanobelts in concentrated sunlight delivered through optical fiber bundle coupled with solar concentrator

摘要

To date, sunlight driven photocatalytic process for wastewater treatment is a great challenge. Herein, the photocatalyticmethylene blue (MB) dye degradation activity of silver vanadate nanobelts has been enhanced using concentrated sunlightirradiation. The MB dye degradation factor in normal and concentrated sunlight irradiation is 0.57 and 0.25 respectivelyafter 120 min of light exposure. Therefore, degradation of MB dye in concentrated sunlight occurs more than twotimes faster than normal sunlight. The silver vanadate nanobelts have been prepared by simple hydrothermal method.The prepared nanobelts are very thin having length ranging between 5 and 10 μm and width is in the 100–300 nm range.The optical band gap of the synthesized silver vanadate nanobelts is 1.96 eV (632.5 nm), which indicates strong absorptionof visible light. This work will open new technological aspects for cost-effective sustainable wastewater treatmentusing solar energy.