Visible light induced photocatalytic activity of MnO2/BiVO4 for the degradation of organic dye and tetracycline

In this work, alpha-MnO2/BiVO4 nanocomposites with varying MnO2 contents (0-7 wt%) were successfully prepared via the simple chemical method. The structure, morphology, and optical properties of prepared nanocomposites were studied by various analytical techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The photocatalytic efficiency of alpha-MnO2/BiVO4 nanocomposites was studied via decomposition of rhodamine B (RhB) and tetracycline (TC) under exposure to visible light (lambda >= 420 nm). Due to good structure and composite advantages, 5%MnO2/ BiVO4 (MnBV-5) photocatalyst exhibited superior RhB and TC degradation efficiency to all other samples. In addition, the MnBV-5 photocatalyst showed good stability, and no apparent reduction in photocatalysis efficiency was noted after five testing cycles. Therefore, the MnO2/BiVO4 nanocomposite demonstrated a good potential for photocatalytic decomposition of new water contaminants.

Automated summary

Alpha-MnO2/BiVO4 nanocomposites with different MnO2 contents (0-7 wt%) were successfully synthesized through a simple chemical method. The structure, morphology, and optical properties of the nanocomposites were studied using various analytical techniques. The photocatalytic efficiency of the nanocomposites was evaluated through the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and tetracycline (TC) under visible light irradiation (λ >= 420 nm). The 5% MnO2/BiVO4 (MnBV-5) photocatalyst exhibited the highest degradation efficiency and maintained good stability after five testing cycles.