Microwave and Tween-80 Assisted Hydrothermal Synthesized of BiVO4 and its Improved Photo Catalytic Activity under Visible Light

Monoclinic BiVO4 nanosheets were successfully synthesized by the microwave hydro-thermal method in a relatively short time with TW-80(C64H124O26-80) acted as the soft template. The effect of pH, synthesizing time on the morphology, and dosage of TW-80 were investigated in detail. The crystal form, morphology and absorption spectrum of the as prepared BiVO4 samples were characterized by means of x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that the samples synthesized both under acid and neutral environment showed the higher photo-catalytic activity. Up to 98% of MB was degraded in 300 minutes. The certain amount of TW-80 added in synthesizing BiVO4 altered the morphology, resulted in the appearance of more active sites, shortened the transmittance distance of the carriers and thus enhanced photo-induced electrons separation efficiency.