Effects of Cu dopants on the structures and photocatalytic performance of cocoon-like Cu-BiVO4 prepared via ethylene glycol solvothermal method

A series of cocoon-like hierarchical structures xCu-BiVO4 photocatalysts were successfully synthesized by ethylene glycol solvothermal method with ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) as the chelating agent. The as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, BET, UV–Vis DRS and PL, res...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of alloys and compounds 2017-01, Vol.691, p.8-14
Main Authors: Wang, Min, Guo, Pengyao, Chai, Tianyu, Xie, Yuanhua, Han, Jin, You, Meiyan, Wang, Youzhao, Zhu, Tong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
BiVO4
Cocoon-like
Cu doping
Ethylene glycol solvothermal method
Rhodamine B
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Summary:A series of cocoon-like hierarchical structures xCu-BiVO4 photocatalysts were successfully synthesized by ethylene glycol solvothermal method with ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) as the chelating agent. The as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, BET, UV–Vis DRS and PL, respectively. It was shown that the amount of Cu2+ has no effect on the crystal phases of BiVO4 but plays an important role on the morphology, the catalysts turned from flower-like into cocoon-like hierarchical structures due to Cu2+ doping. Results showed that Cu2+ doping can effectively enhance the photocatalytic activities of the BiVO4 which were evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation. The improvement of photocatalytic activity is due to the changed morphology, the enhancement of light absorption, narrower band gap and lower recombination ratio of photo-induced electron-hole pairs. The best photocatalytic performance is obtained for 1.5Cu-BiVO4, of which the Rhodamine B(RhB) photo-degradation rate can reach to be 96% after 50 min under visible-light irradiation. The stable xCu-BiVO4 will be a promising photocatalytic material applied in degradation of organic pollutants. •The cocoon-like Cu-BiVO4 was synthesized by ethylene glycol solvothermal method.•The maximum activity was observed when the molar ratio of Cu/Bi was 1.5%.•The higher activity due to morphology and lower recombination ratio of e+-h- pair.•The 1.5Cu-BiVO4 exhibited a high stability photocatalytic performance.
ISSN:0925-8388
1873-4669
DOI:10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.08.198