Facile fabrication of CeVO4 hierarchical hollow microspheres with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Hierarchical hollow CeVO4 microspheres with average size about 5 mu m and the thickness of shell walls about 500 nm were fabricated via a simple hydrothermal method with L-Aspartic acid (L-Asp) as the structure-directing agent. SEM results indicate that hierarchical hollow CeVO4 microspheres are assembled by numerous nanoflakes with thickness of 30-40 nm. The dimensions and hollowness of the hollow microspheres can be tailored via the appropriate controlling of reaction time and the amount of L-Asp. N-2 adsorption-desorption measurements revealed the BET surface area of the nanoflakes-assembled CeVO4 hollow microspheres was 98.24 m(2)/g. The photocatalytic properties of CeVO4 were investigated by the degradation of methylene orange (MO) under UV light irradiation. This excellent performance can be ascribed to the synergistic effect of hollow nature and hierarchical structures, which endowing CeVO4 great potential for purifying organic pollutants. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.