Design of novel solar-light driven sponge-like Fe2V4O13 photocatalyst: A unique platform for the photoreduction of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium

In past days, the occurrence of toxic heavy metal ions into the water and soil environment causes a major health risk to the living organisms. In this work, we mainly focused on the photoreduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr6+) using novel sponge-like Fe2V4O13 photocatalyst under visible light irradiation. The sponge-like Fe2V4O13 was tailored through hydrothermal process using ferric chloride and sodium metavanadate precursors without the addition of any templates. The surface morphology, elemental analysis and various physical properties are characterized by numerous spectroscopic techniques. Interestingly, the sponge-like Fe2V4O13 demonstrated proficient photocatalytic performances towards the reduction of Cr6+ into Cr3+. The obtained UV-visible spectroscopy results portrayed that sponge-like Fe2V4O13 could reduce above of Cr6+ solution within 40 min. The effect of operational reaction parameters such as catalyst dosage, initial Cr6+ concentration and pH of the solution was optimized. Moreover, the sponge-like Fe2V4O13 holds very good stability even after five consecutive cycles. This study could open new insights for the design novel nanostructured binary metal oxides for environmental applications.