One-step hydrothermal synthesis of novel Ag3VO4/Ag4V2O7 composites for enhancing visible-light photocatalytic performance

Novel direct Z-scheme Ag3VO4/Ag4V2O7 composites were synthesized by one-step hydrothermal method for the first time. The photocatalytic performance was evaluated by the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and phenol under visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 420 nm). The results showed that the as-synthesized heterojunctions can significantly enhance photocatalytic activity in comparison with pure Ag3VO4. The optimum photocatalytic efficiency of 3:1.5 mol% Ag/V sample for the degradation MB and phenol reached up to about 100% and 62.1%, respectively. In addition, 3:1.25 mol% Ag/V sample had an excellent visible light response range, which occurred around 652 nm. Based on the photocurrent and the radical-trapping experiments, the possible for the enhancing photocatalytic mechanism was found to be a direct Z-scheme heterojunction system, which not only can improve the photogenerated electron–hole pairs' separation but also exhibit strong oxidation and reduction ability.