Investigation of the photocatalytic properties of bismuth vanadate-based materials for promising environmental remediation

The pollution of the natural environment is actually one of the most critical issues in our society. Therefore environmental remediation by using clean processes has gained great interest. Among them, heterogeneous photocatalysis using semiconductors appears to be an attractive process. Bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) is a promising semiconductor photocatalyst since it could be activated under solar radiation. However its photocatalytic efficiency is limited by poor electron transport and high charge recombination. In the present work, Nb-modified BiVO₄ and BiVO₄/TiO₂ composite materials were prepared in the form of films using simple wet chemical methods. These modified BiVO₄ films exhibited better photocatalytic degradation rate of organic pollutants than pristine BiVO₄ under solar-like radiation. Rhodamine B and stearic acid were used as model pollutants for the investigation of the photooxidative properties of BiVO₄ - based films. All the films were characterized by XRD and SEM. (authors)