Facile synthesis nanocrystalline YVO4 in the presence of amino acids as a capping agent and study of their photocatalytic properties

Abstract

In this research, precipitation method was employed for the synthesis of nano-sized spherical yttrium vanadate (YVO4) particles, which is based on chemical reactions between raw materials in presence of different amino acids such as glycine, aniline and valine. YVO4 nanoparticles were synthesized by calcinations of the yttrium vanadate precursor precipitates at 550 °C for 5 h. The crystallite size and structure of the products have been confirmed by XRD. Also, the morphology and particle size of YVO4 nanoparticles was analyzed by SEM images. The optical properties were investigated by UV–Vis spectroscopy. Moreover the direct precipitation technique is a feasible method for production of YVO4 nanopowders. The methyl orange (MO) degradation model was used for assessment of photocatalytic properties of as-prepared nanoparticles under UV irradiation. The results have been shown that the YVO4 nanoparticles can be decomposed about 85% of MO after 70 min UV irradiation.