Photodegradation of acetone over V-Gd-O composite catalysts under visible light

A series of visible light active catalysts, V-Gd-O composites, were prepared by the impregnation method. In the photodegradation of acetone, the highest acetone conversion was obtained on V 1Gd 1O x catalyst under visible light. The physical and photophysical properties of the composite catalyst have been characterized by XRD, FT-IR, Raman, BET surface area, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The characterization indicates the V-Gd-O photocatalyst exhibits three phases: Gd 2O 3, GdVO 4 and V 2O 5. On the basis of the calculated energy band positions and PL spectra, the high activity of the V-Gd-O catalysts could be attributed to the coupling effect between GdVO 4 and V 2O 5 in retarding the recombination of electron–hole pairs.