Synthesis of dumbbell-like CuO-BiVO4 heterogeneous nanostructures with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

Novel dumbbell-like CuO-BiVO4 (CuO-BVO) heterogeneous nanostructures with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity were successfully prepared by the microwave method and impregnation-calcination technique. The dumbbell-like BiVO4 is assembled by plenty of nanoparticles. The photocatalytic experiments show that CuO species loading can effectively enhance the photocatalytic activities of the samples which are evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange under visible-light irradiation.