Visible light-induced Silver and Lanthanum co-doped BiVO4 nanoparticles for photocatalytic dye degradation of organic pollutants

Abstract

• Ag and La-doped BiVO 4 have been synthesized by a simple hydrothermal route. • The photocatalytic activity of samples was examined using XyO and Rh-B. • The doped materials showed enhanced degradation efficiency. The photocatalytic degradation of Xylenol orange (XyO) and Rhodamine B (Rh-B) is investigated in this study using the heterogeneous photocatalytic method. Silver (Ag) and Lanthanum (La) co-doped BiVO 4 photocatalysts have been synthesized using hydrothermal methods. In this study, the effect of Ag and La doping on the crystal structure, morphology and photocatalytic properties of the BiVO 4 nanoparticles have been investigated. The synthesized photocatalysts have a monoclinic scheelite structure. The pinecone-shaped Ag/La-BiVO 4 particles have shown an increased photocatalytic activity, which is thought to be due to its narrow bandgap energy, porous structure and strong visible light absorption. The photoluminescence intensity of the doped BiVO 4 has decreased significantly when compared to pure BiVO 4 due to the quenching of photoemission in the presence of Ag and La, which improves the efficiency of photocatalytic dye degradation. The time-resolved PL decay obeyed a triexponential pattern with a maximum lifetime of 90.95 ns. The doped materials showed enhanced degradation efficiency of 93% and 95% for XyO and Rh-B followed by a pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.014 min −1 . This study will benefit in the rapid and low-cost preparation of Ag/La-BiVO 4 for photocatalytic degradation of water pollutants.