One-Dimensional Shaving-like BiVO₄ Nanobelts: Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity with Methylene...

One-dimensional shaving-like BiVO₄ nanobelts were successfully synthesized via the oxide hydrothermal method (OHS), using V₂O₅ and Bi₂O₃ as raw materials and PEG 10000 (polyethylene glycol 10000) as a template. Multiple techniques, including XRD, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, UV-Vis, XPS, and photoelectrochemical measurements, were applied to characterize the obtained materials. The thickness of the BiVO₄ nanobelt was approximately 10 nm, while the width was approximately 500 nm. EIS results showed that visible-light illumination caused the photogenerated charge of the BiVO₄ nanobelts to have a faster transfer and a higher separation efficiency. Photocatalytic experiments indicated that with BiVO₄ nanobelts as a catalyst, the degradation rate of MB (methylene blue) was close to 92.4%, and it disintegrated after two hours. Moreover, the pseudo-first-order kinetic model can be used to describe the photodecomposition reaction of MB catalysed by BiVO₄ nanobelts. And this excellent photocatalytic activity of the shaving-like BiVO₄ nanobelts may be related to their special morphology, narrow band gap (~2.19 eV), faster transfer and the separation efficiency of the photogenerated charge, leading to strong absorption in the visible region and improving the separation of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. These novel monoclinic BiVO₄ nanobelts exhibited great photocatalytic activity and are thus a promising candidate for application in visible-light-responsive photocatalysts.