Selective construction of junctions on different facets of BiVO4 for enhancing photo-activity

A novel ternary Ag/BiVO4/Co3O4 hybrid photocatalyst was designed by constructing a metal-semiconductor junction and a p-n junction on electron-rich {010} facets and hole-rich {110} facets of BiVO4, respectively. The Ag/BiVO4/Co3O4 hybrid photocatalyst exhibits enhanced photocatalytic activity for rhodamine B degradation, which is over 8 times that of bare BiVO4 under simulated solar light. It was proven that the combination of a metal-semiconductor junction and a p-n junction further promotes the charge transferring across the interface, and results in an additional effect of two single junctions for improving photo-activity. This research provides a deep insight about the co-working mechanism between the two heterojunctions, and it will propose a new concept for designing a highly efficient photo-catalyst system.