Facile microwave assisted synthesis of floral-shaped BiVO4 nano particles for their photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical performances

Floral shaped monoclinic scheelite BiVO4 (ms-BiVO4) have been successfully synthesized by a facile microwave assisted method using domestic micro oven. The synthesized material has been subjected to characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, BET, IR, Raman, PL and UV-Vis DRS techniques to describe the crystalline and morphology nature and photochemical properties of the sample. The floral shaped ms-BiVO4 possessed strong photoabsorption properties in the visible light with a band gap of ca. 2.3 eV. The analysis report of the ms-BiVO4 was stated that the catalyst has monoclinic crystalline and high surface area of ca. 24.0 m(2) g(-1). This study denotes that the microwave plays a major impact on the morphology and crystal size. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the degradation of a methylene blue and phenol aqueous solution in the presence of a small amount of H2O2 under visible light illumination. The photocurrent density and more negative flat band potentials also supported to photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting performance of ms-BiVO4 and the two features could have to improve the recombination life time, electron donor density. The floral shaped ms-BiVO4 maintained stability with better photocatalytic efficiency even at fifth cycles. The improved photocatalytic activity for methylene blue, phenol degradation and PEC activity of ms-BiVO4 was associated with the unique crystalline, optical property and morphology.