Facile synthesis of InVO4/TiO2 heterojunction photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic properties under UV–vis irradiation

• The InVO4/TiO2 heterojunction photocatalysts have been prepared via a facile impregnation method in alcoholic media.
• The addition of small amounts of InVO4 did not affect the structural and textural properties of TiO2.
• The sample 0.5% InVO4/TiO2 showed a ∼110% of improvement compared with the pristine TiO2 under UV–vis irradiation.

The InVO4/TiO2 heterojunction system has been prepared by means of a practical impregnation method in alcoholic media. The obtained photocatalysts were characterized by several techniques, such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and electron microscopy (SEM/TEM). Also, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms were employed in order to determine the surface area (BET) and pore-size distribution (BJH) of the samples. We have observed that the addition of InVO4 did not provide changes in the structural and textural properties of TiO2 but substantially improved its photocatalytic properties. The best photocatalytic performance for the degradation of phenol was achieved for TiO2 with 0.5 wt.% loading of InVO4. From these results it can be inferred that the effective separation of the charge carriers produced an improvement in the photocatalytic performances of the InVO4/TiO2 heterojunction photocatalysts. In the same way, a possible mechanism is discussed in order to explain the enhanced photoactivity under UV–vis irradiation.