Combined experimental and first principles look into (Ce, Mo) doped BiVO4
Tasnim Ahmed Mahi,
Quazi Shafayat Hossain,
Sadiq Shahriyar Nishat,
Shahran Ahmed,
M.N.I. Khan,
Muhammad Shahriar Bashar,
Shirin Akter Jahan,
Umme Sarmeen Akhtar,
Sharmin Jahan,
Fariha Chowdhury,
Khandker Saadat Hossain,
Ahmad Irfan,
Imtiaz Ahmed
Affiliations
Tasnim Ahmed Mahi
Materials Science Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Quazi Shafayat Hossain
Materials Science Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Sadiq Shahriyar Nishat
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
Shahran Ahmed
Materials Science Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh; Institute of Energy Research and Development, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh
M.N.I. Khan
Materials Science Division, Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Muhammad Shahriar Bashar
Institute of Energy Research and Development, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh
Shirin Akter Jahan
Institute of Glass and Ceramic Research and Testing, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh
Umme Sarmeen Akhtar
Institute of Glass and Ceramic Research and Testing, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh
Sharmin Jahan
Institute of Food Science and Technology, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh
Fariha Chowdhury
Biomedical and Toxicological Research Institute, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh
Khandker Saadat Hossain
Nanophysics and Soft Matter Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Ahmad Irfan
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Khalid University, PO. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Imtiaz Ahmed
Materials Science Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh; Corresponding author.
Here we investigated the effects of Ce and Mo doping on hydrothermally synthesized bismuth vanadate BiVO4 nanoparticles (NPs). The existence of monoclinic scheelite and tetragonal zircon phases of NPs was validated from Rietveld refinement of the powdered X-ray diffraction, room temperature Raman, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The co-doping of Bi and V sites with respective Ce and Mo dopants in a mixed tetragonal zircon and monoclinic scheelite phases of BiVO4 lattice was corroborated from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The photoluminescence measurements revealed enhancement of photo-generated carrier recombination in (Ce, Mo) co-doped BiVO4 NPs which may have hampered its photocatalytic efficiency in degrading the methylene blue dye. The simulations based on Hubbard U corrected density functional theory (DFT+U) suggest that Mo and Ce co-doping introduced deep impurity states which may have facilitated the photo-generated carrier recombination detrimental to photocatalytic performance. The UV-vis diffuse reflectance measurements provided evidence for the presence of these defect states. In summary, this work may have presented a comprehensive experimental analysis of (Ce, Mo) doped BiVO4 supported by DFT simulations.
