Ag(2)O-decorated electrospun BiVO(4) nanofibers with enhanced photocatalytic performance

Semiconductor photocatalysts are emerging as tools for pollutant degradation in industrial wastewater, air purification, antibacterial applications, etc. due to their use of visible light, which is abundant in sunlight. Here, we report a new type of p–n junction Ag(2)O/BiVO(4) heterogeneous nanostructured photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic performance. P-type Ag(2)O nanoparticles were in situ reduced and assembled on the surface of electrospun BiVO(4) nanofibers using ultraviolet (UV) irradiation; this process hindered the recombination of localized photogenerated electron–hole pairs, and hence resulted in the enhanced photocatalytic activity of the BiVO(4)/Ag(2)O nanocomposites. The photocatalytic activities of the obtained BiVO(4) and BiVO(4)/Ag(2)O nanocomposites were assessed by measuring the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light. The 10 wt% Ag(2)O/BiVO(4) sample yielded the optimum degradation of RhB (98.47%), much higher than that yielded by pure BiVO(4) nanofibers (64.67%). No obvious change in the XRD pattern of an Ag(2)O/BiVO(4) sample occurred as a result of its use in the photocatalytic reaction, indicating its excellent stability. The high photocatalytic performance observed was attributed to the large surface-to-volume ratio of the essentially one-dimensional electrospun BiVO(4) nanofibers and to the in situ growth of p-type Ag(2)O on the surface of the n-type BiVO(4) nanofibers.