Effects of aluminum substitution on photocatalytic property of BiVO4 under visible light irradiation

Novel visible-light-driven Al/BiVO4 photocatalysts were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method for the first time. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2-sorption, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated by the decomposition of methylene blue under visible light irradiation (400 nm < λ <580 nm) and was compared with that of single-phase BiVO4. The results revealed that the introduction of Al can improve photocatalytic performance greatly and different concentration of Al resulted in different photocatalytic activity. The highest activity is obtained by the sample with a doping concentration of 12 at%. The reason for the enhanced photocatalytic activities of Al/BiVO4 samples was also discussed in this paper.