In-situ construction of Bi25VO40/BiVO4 heterojunctions with boosted photocatalytic activity

In this study, Bi25VO40/BiVO4 heterojunctions were in-situ constructed by NaOH etching of BiVO4. The resulting samples exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity in removal of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. Notably, the photocatalytic efficiency of BiVO4 etched by NaOH with a concentration of 3 mol/L is 3.17 times of that of the reference BiVO4. Furthermore, the photocatalysts demonstrate remarkable stability during five successive cycle experiments. The heightened photocatalytic activity of BiVO4 treated by sodium hydroxide can be definitely attributed to improved separation efficiency of photogenerated charges owing to construction of Bi25VO40/BiVO4 heterojunctions.