Hydrothermal synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic activity of hierarchical flower-like Fe-doped BiVO4

Fe-doped BiVO4 with hierarchical flower-like structure was prepared via a hydrothermal method using sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) as structure directing agent. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-Vis were applied for characterization of the as-prepared samples. The formation mechanism of flower-like structure was proposed based on the evolution of morphology as a function of hydrothermal time. Fe-doped into substitutional sites of BiVO4 effectively improved the migration and separation of photogenerated carrier and enhanced the utilization of visible light. Flower-like Fe-doped BiVO4 showed much higher visible-light-driven photocatalytic efficiency for degradation of methyl blue compared with the pristine BiVO4. And the sample with a Fe/Bi mole ratio of 2.5% showed the highest photocatalytic efficiency.