Synthesis of manganese vanadate nanobelts and their visible light photocatalytic activity for methylene blue

Manganese vanadate nanobelts have been synthesised by a simple hydrothermal process using polymer polyvinyl pyrrolidone as the surfactant by adjusting the pH value. The X- ray diffraction, selected area electron diffraction and the highresolution transmission electron microscopy ( TEM) show that the manganese vanadate nanobelts are composed of a single crystalline monoclinic Mn(2)V2O(7) phase. Scanning electron microscopy and TEM observations show that the thickness, width and length of the nanobelts are 20 nm, 350 nm - 1 mu m and several dozens to several hundreds of micrometres, respectively. The photocatalytic activities of the manganese vanadate nanobelts have been evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue ( MB) in an aqueous solution as a model pollutant under the solar light irradiation. After 4 h of the irradiation by the solar light, the MB solution with the volume of 10 mL and the concentration of 10 mg. mL-1 can be totally degraded using 10 mg manganese vanadate nanobelts.