Designing three-dimensional acicular sheaf shaped BiVO sub(4)/reduced graphene oxide composites for efficient sunlight-driven photocatalytic degradation of dye wastewater

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Vol. 249; pp. 102 - 110
• Main Authors: Dong, Shuying, Cui, Yanrui, Wang, Yifei, Li, Yukun, Hu, Limin, Sun, Jingyu, Sun, Jianhui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.08.2014
• Subjects: Architecture; Chemical engineering; Degradation; Graphene; Oxides; Photocatalysis; Three dimensional; Waste water
• ISSN: 1385-8947
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.03.071

A simple and cost-effective method for the tailored synthesis of uniform three dimensional (3D) acicular sheaf shaped BiVO sub(4) architectures under mild conditions was designed, where the as-synthesized BiVO sub(4) products were then incorporated with prepared reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets to form novel BiVO sub(4)/RGO composites. The obtained composites were well characterized with the aid of various techniques to study their morphological, physical, optical, and photo-chemical properties. Photocatalytic performances of the pure 3D BiVO sub(4) architectures and BiVO sub(4)/RGO composites have been evaluated by investigating the degradation of Rhodamine B-contained wastewater under natural sunlight irradiation, where the BiVO sub(4)/RGO composites displayed enhanced sunlight-driven photocatalytic activities. The effects of the active species involved in the photocatalytic process and the cycle-stability of the as-obtained BiVO sub(4)/RGO photocatalysts have also been examined.