A facile synthesis and properties of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) photocatalyst by hydrothermal method

In this study, BiVO4 photocatalysts were synthesized by hydrothermal method using Bi(NO3)3 5H2O and NH4VO3 as raw materials followed by calcination at different temperatures in the range from 350 °C to 600 °C. The as-synthesized BiVO4 samples were characterized by a number of physicochemical techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and UV-Visible (UV-Vis) light diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry. The effect of temperatures calcination on structure, surface morphology, visible-light photocatalytic activity and light absorption performance of BiVO4 was discussed in details