Novel bifunctional V2O5/BiVO4 nanocomposite materials with enhanced antibacterial activity

Abstract

Novel bifunctional V2O5/BiVO4 nanocomposite antibacterial materials with a hierarchical heterojunction structure are synthesized through a facile, low cost, and energy-saving approach. The preparation procedure involves a room-temperature precipitation conversion in aqueous solution and subsequent calcination. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy disperse spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV–visible diffusion reflectance spectroscopy were used to identify the physical properties. V2O5/BiVO4 nanocomposite photocatalysts exhibit enhanced photocatalytic antibacterial activities, which can be attributed to the involving of V2O5 to form a heterojunction structure. The heterojunction greatly increases the separation extent and the lifetime of the photogenerated charges in the nanocomposite material. What is more, this kind of nanocomposite material can kill bacteria in the absence of visible light, which may be due to its hierarchical nanostructure. V2O5/BiVO4 nanocomposite materials obtained in the present work have excellent bifunctional antibacterial activities and may be potentially applied in practical antibacterial fields.