Hydrothermal Synthesis and Photocatalytic Properties of Cu-doped BiVO_4 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 is 5.89 ×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.