Hydrothermally Prepared Vanadium Oxide Nanostructures for Photocatalytic Application

Abstract

In the present work, vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) nanoparticles have been successfully prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. The effect of annealing on the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye is studied. The structure of V2O5 is confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy, while Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is used for functional group detection. Agglomerated nanoparticle morphology is observed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The direct band gap of V2O5 is 2.63–2.81 eV calculated using ultraviolet-visible (UV) spectra. Finally, the photocatalytic degradation of MB dye by V2O5 is studied. The results indicate a promising and enhanced degradation property of calcinated V2O5. A very small quantity of calcinated V2O5 shows about 68% degradation of MB within 80 min, and the rate constant for the calcinated product is 9.9 × 10-5 s-1.