A Meta-Analysis of Influencing Factors on the Activity of BiVO₄-Based Photocatalysts

With the continuous advancement of global industrialization, a large amount of organic and inorganic pollutants have been discharged into the environment, which is essential for human survival. Consequently, the issue of water environment pollution has become increasingly severe. Photocatalytic technology is widely used to degrade water pollutants due to its strong oxidizing performance and non-polluting characteristics, and BiVO₄-based photocatalysts are one of the ideal raw materials for photocatalytic reactions. However, a comprehensive global analysis of the factors influencing the photocatalytic performance of BiVO₄-based photocatalysts is currently lacking. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to investigate the differences in specific surface area, kinetic constants, and the pollutant degradation performance of BiVO₄-based photocatalysts under different preparation and degradation conditions. It was found that under the loading condition, all the performances of the photocatalysts can be attributed to the single BiVO₄ photocatalyst. Moreover, loading could lead to an increase in the specific surface area of the material, thereby providing more adsorption sites for photocatalysis and ultimately enhancing the photocatalytic performance. Overall, the construct heterojunction and loaded nanomaterials exhibit a superior performance for BiVO₄-based photocatalysts with 136.4% and 90.1% improvement, respectively. Additionally, within a certain range, the photocatalytic performance increases with the reaction time and temperature.