Study of the interfacial charge transfer in bismuth vanadate/reduce graphene oxide (BiVO4/rGO) composite and evaluation of its photocatalytic activity

• Published in: Research on chemical intermediates Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 1201 - 1215
• Main Authors: Sajid, Muhammad Munir, Shad, Naveed Akthar, Javed, Yasir, Khan, Sadaf Bashir, Zhang, Zhengjun, Amin, Nasir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-02-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bismuth oxides; Catalysis; Catalytic activity; Charge efficiency; Charge transfer; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Current carriers; Electron microscopes; Fourier transforms; Graphene; Infrared analysis; Inorganic Chemistry; Light irradiation; Methylene blue; Nanocomposites; Organic chemistry; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Photoluminescence; Physical Chemistry; Pollutants; Spectroscopic analysis; Spectrum analysis; Vanadates; rGO; Water purification; Photocatalysis; Photoluminescence; BiVO; Methylene blue
• ISSN: 0922-6168; 1568-5675
• DOI: 10.1007/s11164-019-04029-2

We prepared unique BiVO
4
/reduce graphene oxide (BiVO
4
/rGO) nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic ability by hydrothermal method applying Bi(NO
3
)
3
·5H
2
O, NH
4
VO
3
and graphene oxide as precursors. The physical and chemical attributes were characterized by various analytical techniques; X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectrum analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photon spectroscopy, surface area Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analyzer and photoluminescence. Methylene blue was used as a pollutant and degraded under visible light irradiation; the photocatalytic activity of BiVO
4
/rGO nanocomposite was observed 29% higher than the pure BiVO
4
catalyst. The graphene enhanced the surface adsorption property and increased the charge separation efficiency of photo-created charge carriers; moreover, the photoactivity of BiVO
4
increased considerably. The mechanism for the BiVO
4
/rGO nanocomposite was purposed and discussed critically, which suggests that graphene acts as electron trapper and tuning the bandgap energy led to superior photocatalytic activity.