Nitrogen and carbon encapsulated heterophasic bismuth vanadate nanostructures: Synthesis and application in visible light driven textile dye degradation

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry communications Vol. 156; p. 111149
• Main Authors: Kulkarni, Sachin, Laxmi, Raj, Anupama, A.V., Pattar, Jayadev, Ranot, Mahipal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.10.2023
• Subjects: Heterophasic bismuth vanadate; Nitrogen and carbon encapsulation; Rietveld refinement; Solution combustion synthesis; Visible light active photocatalysis; Nitrogen and carbon encapsulation; Solution combustion synthesis; Rietveld refinement; Heterophasic bismuth vanadate; Visible light active photocatalysis
• ISSN: 1387-7003; 1879-0259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.inoche.2023.111149

[Display omitted] •Carbon and nitrogen encapsulated heterophasic BiVO4 nanophotocatalyst was synthesised by solution combustion method.•Heterojunction of monoclinic scheelite (m-s) and tetragonal scheelite (t-s) phases was observed, unlike the commonly reported monoclinic scheelite (m-s) and tetragonal zirconite (t-z) phases•Efficient and quick visible light driven catalytic degradation (> 90 % in 20 min) of methylene blue dye was observed.•Heterojunction in our BiVO4 nanophotocatalyst effectively minimized the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, with superior dye degradation efficiency than the reported values.•Our nanophotocatalyst showed excellent chemical stability and reusability. Heterophasic BiVO4 nanoparticles with nitrogen and carbon shell structure were synthesized by a simple yet energy efficient solution combustion route using glycine as the fuel. The intended BiVO4 phase formed in a short time, at a low temperature (250 °C) without the requirement of further thermal annealing process. This nanophotocatalyst was investigated for its dye degradation activity on aqueous methylene blue under visible (white) light. It was found that synergetic combination of the presence of nitrogen containing carbon coating on the BiVO4 particles, and the novel heterostructure (phase mixtures constituting monoclinic scheelite and tetragonal scheelite) resulted in the rapid and highly efficient degradation (∼ 90.19 % and ∼ 97 % in the first 20 min and 120 min, respectively) of aqueous methylene blue. The reusability of the nanophotocatalyst for dye degradation was tested for a total of five consecutive cycles, with the last cycle exhibiting an impressive efficiency of ∼ 82% and ∼ 93.4 %, in the first 20 min and 120 min, respectively. Thus, our nanophotocatalyst has combined advantages of easy, quick and one step synthesis along with high chemical stability while demonstrating rapid and efficient dye degradation under visible light irradiation. This evinces the nanophotocatalyst a potential candidate for large scale dye degradation in a short duration of time.