Effects of Y Doping Content on Visible-light Photocatalytic Property of N-BiVO₄

Abstract

Y doped N-BiVO4 photocatalysts were synthesized by a sol-gel method using rice stem as template. The photocatalysts were characterized by XPS, XRD, SEM, BET and UV-Vis DRS methods. The results show that all samples are monoclinic phase and Y doping does not change the crystallinity of N-BiVO4. The addition of nitrogen and yttrium inhibits the growth of crystalline grain and reunion, which can decrease the average grain size and increase the specific area of N-BiVO4,and leds to narrower band-gap and red-shift of optical absorption band. The effects of doping component on photocatalytic activity are evaluated by measuring the degradation of azocarmine B under visible light irradiation. 6Y-N-BVO has an optimal photocatalytic effect and the degradation rate of AZB in 50min is 97%, which is much higher than that of N-BVO(68%) and 6Y-BVO(72%).

Keywords

• rice stem
• doping
• bismuth vanadate
• azocarmine B