Photocatalytic degradation of phenol over Cu loading BiVO4 metal composite oxides under visible light irradiation

A series of Cu–BiVO4 photocatalyst is synthesized by the hydrothermal synthesis method for different durations. A strong correlation is found among the prepared processing, structure and property of the samples. With increasing synthesis time from 0.5 h to 8 h, the crystallinity increases and the as-prepared Cu–BiVO4 sample gradually disappears from the nanostructures. The light absorption of the sample becomes higher in the UV and visible range, accompanied by a bathochromic shift of the absorption edge. The competitive relations between crystallinity and surface area affecting photocatalytic activity are discussed. The as-prepared Cu–BiVO4 sample exists as a small quantity of intermediary spherical-like particles and has significant high surface area of 14.2 m2 g−1, and the photocatalytic activity can reach as high as 93% at 6 h. In addition, the average growth value of the degradation rate on all the samples at 2 h is higher than the others at 90 min as the adsorption of Cu–BiVO4 sample dominates in the photocatalytic reaction.