Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of TiO2/BiVO4 layered films under visible light irradiation

Abstract

TiO2/BiVO4 layered films were prepared by sol-gel and spin coating methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Uv-vis spectroscopy were used to investigate the crystal structure, morphology and ultraviolet-visible absorption of the TiO2/BiVO4 films. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared films was inspected according to the degradation of methylene blue. The results show that the prepared films present a net chain structure; the absorption band edge had obvious red shift. The degradation of the methylene blue solution was about 80% after 300 mins using TiO2/BiVO4 layered films under visible light, which was stronger than when using only pure TiO2 film and BiVO4 film.