Photocatalytic Degradation of Crystal Violet on Cu, Zn Doped BiVO<sub>4</sub> Particles
Nivedita Singh, Uttam Kumar, Neha Jatav, Indrajit Sinha
Abstract
Fabrication of codoped photocatalysts is a developing area of research. Herein, we explore the visible light photocatalytic properties of Cu, Zn codoped BiVO 4 particles. Doping lower valent cations (Cu and Zn) makes the BiVO 4 surface more acidic and enables us to target the basic crystal violet (CV) dye. The adopted hydrothermal protocol of synthesis results in the formation of Cu–Zn codoped monoclinic BiVO 4 particles. Undoped monoclinic BiVO 4, prepared by the same protocol, showed significant formation of oxygen vacancies. XPS analyses confirm the coexistence of Cu 2+ /Cu + and Zn 2+ dopants. Increased dopant percentage reduced oxygen vacancies. XRD indicates that Cu 2+ /Cu + or Zn 2+ dopants generally substitute Bi 3+ in BiVO 4 . All photocatalysis activities for CV degradation are reported under near-neutral pH conditions. A typical codoped BiVO 4 photocatalyst with 1% Zn and 2% Cu demonstrated the best CV degradation photocatalytic activity. The activity of this Zn, Cu codoped photocatalyst is better than that of pure, Zn-doped, and Cu-doped BiVO 4 samples. Active species trapping experiments indicated the possible photocatalysis mechanism. The photocatalysts exhibited appropriate recyclability and photostability.