Photocatalytic Activity of Gd<sup>3+</sup> and Sm<sup>3+</sup> Co-Doped BiVO<sub>4 </sub>Powders Prepared by Chemical Precipitation Process

Abstract

Pure BiVO4, single doped and co-doped BiVO4 have been prepared by chemical precipitation method and characterized by the techniques such as XRD and SEM/EDAX. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution was used as a probe reaction to evaluate pure BiVO4, single doped BiVO4 and co-doped BiVO4 photocatalytic activity. The results show that doping of single doped and co-doped significantly enhance the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4. When the 0.1%Gd3+ and 0.2%Sm co-doped, the BiVO4 degradation rate reaches 91%.