Synthesis and Characterization of Highly Visible―light Active Monoclinic Mesoporous BiVO4

Ordered nanocrystalline mesoporous BiVO4 with pure phase was successfully synthesized at 550 via nanocasting using cubic MCM―48 molecular sieves as hard template. The long―range ordered mesostructure was characterized by XRD, TEM, BET as well as UV―Vis spectrophotometer. Compared with the BiVO4 synthesized by conventional hydrothermal method, the nanocasting mesoporous BiVO4 has the average pore diameter of 16.8nm, pore volume of 0.1 cm3/g and specific surface area up to 22.9 m2/g. The structure decreases the recombination of optical excitation electrons and holes efficiently, so the mesoporous BiVO4 has an excellent photocatalytic activity in the visible light region. As a result, the photocatalytic efficiency of mesoporous BiVO4 for xanthate in 90min reaches 78%.