Hydrothermal Synthesis and Photocatalytic Properties of Cu-doped BiVO4 Microsheets

Using Bi(NO3)3·5H2O, NaVO3 and Cu(NO3)2·3H2O as raw materials, Cu-doped BiVO4 microsheets were synthesized by ultrasonic-hydrothermal process with cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as template. The as-prepared samples were investigated by XRD, XPS, SEM, HRTEM, UV-Vis and BET tests. The results reveal that uniform and well crystallized Cu/BiVO4 microsheets in monoclinic crystal structure, with length of 1.0–2.0 μm, width of 0.5–2.0 μm and thickness of 200–300 nm, could be obtained via an ultrasonic-hydrothermal route assisted by 2.0 g CTAB. Compared with BiVO4 particles, Cu/BiVO4 nanosheets show a little red shift in the absorption band, resulting in a narrowed band gap (<2.4 eV). For 5.0wt% Cu/ BiVO4 microsheet, its photodegradation rate constant K is5.89 ×10–2 /min and the best photocatalytic activity is found with a 100% degradation of methylene blue (MB) with 10 mg/L concentration under visible-light irradiation for 60 min.