Fabrication of the heterojunction catalyst BiVO(4)/P25 and its visible-light photocatalytic activities

A heterojunction catalyst, BiVO(4)/P25, was successfully fabricated using a one-step hydrothermal method. The prepared composite was characterized using XRD, XPS, Raman, FT-IR, UV–vis, SEM, HRTEM and PL. The HRTEM pictures revealed that the heterostructured composite was composed of BiVO(4) and P25, and from the pictures of SEM we could see the P25 nanoparticles assembling on the surface of flower-shaped BiVO(4) nanostructures. The XPS spectra showed that the prepared catalyst consisted of Bi, V, O, Ti and C. The photocatalytic activity of BiVO(4)/P25 was evaluated by degraded methyl blue (MB) and tetracycline under visible light illumination (λ > 420 nm), and the results showed that BiVO(4)/P25 composite has a better photocatalytic performance compared with pure BiVO(4) and the most active c-BiVO(4)/P25 sample showed enough catalytic stability after three successive reuses for MB photodegradation. The enhanced photocatalytic performance could mainly be attributed to the better optical absorption ability and good absorption ability of organic contaminants.