Synthesis of BiVO4 by solvothermal method using glycerol solvent and its photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation

Abstract

   In this study, BiVO4 was successfully synthesized by solvothermal method using glycerol solvent. The materials were characterized by modern analytical methods such as XRD, SEM and UV-Vis DRS. XRD results show that the material is made up of high monoclinic phase composition of BiVO4. In addition, SEM images show that solvothermal time has a significant effect on crystal formation and crystal morphology of the material. When the synthesis time increases from 8h to 36h, the crystal shape changes from a sphere to a 4-pointed star shape. At solvothermal time of 24 hours and calcined at 300°C, the resulting material has an unclear grain boundary, the particles agglomerate into blocks with a narrow band gap energy (Eg = 2.34 eV), and have good photocatalytic activity, with about 83.0% MB removed after 180 minutes of irradiation.