Synthesis of dendritic-like BiVO4:Ag heterostructure for enhanced and fast photocatalytic degradation of RhB solution

Abstract Dendritic-like BiVO 4 :Ag heterostructure was formed in the process of visible light-irradiated photocatalysis using dendritic-like BiVO 4 as photocatalyst, AgNO 3 as additive and photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) solution as model reaction. In the coexistence of BiVO 4 and AgNO 3 , Ag islands (nanoparticles) could be formed on the surface of dendritic-like BiVO 4 crystals after Ag + ions captured the photo-generated electrons, and hence the BiVO 4 :Ag heterostructure was obtained. The formation of Ag islands can be directly confirmed by TEM technique. The synergistic effect of the formation of BiVO 4 :Ag heterostructure and Ag + ions as electron capture agent leads to prominent improvement of the photocatalytic activity, i.e., the decolor efficiency of the dendritic-like BiVO 4 photocatalysts for degradation of RhB solution was prominently improved from 34.4% to 91.4% under visible light irradiation only for 20 min.