Influence of the surfactant and temperature on the morphology and physico-chemical properties of hydrothermally synthesized composite oxide BiVO4

BiVO4 was synthesized from a mixture of aqueous Bi(NO3)3 and NH4VO3 solutions over a wide range of temperature via an easy hydrothermal method. The BiVO4 samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–vis and Raman spectroscopy. Spherical and decahedral BiVO4 with better crystallinity can be obtained by changing the reaction temperature and adding the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to the mixed solutions. In addition, we have tested the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4 with the different morphologies. The highest initial rate of O2 evolution was 355 μmol h−1 under visible light radiation. This result indicates that BiVO4 prepared in our experiment is a promising photocatalyst in the visible light region.