Nanostructured BiVO4 Derived from Bi-MOF for Enhanced Visible-light Photodegradation

BiVO 4 , a promising visible-light responding photocatalyst, has aroused extensive research interest because of inexpensiveness and excellent chemical stability. However, its main drawback is the poor photoinduced charge-transfer dynamics. Building nanostructures is an effective way to tackle this problem. Herein, we put forward a new method to prepare nanostructured BiVO 4 from Bi-based metal-organic frameworks[Bi-MOF(CAU-17)] precursor. The as-prepared material has a rod-like morphology inherited from the Bi-MOF sacrificial template and consists of small nanoparticle as building blocks. Compared with its counterparts prepared by conventional methods, MOF-derived nanostructured BiVO 4 shows better light absorption ability, narrower bandgap, and improved electrical conductivity as well as reduced recombination. Consequently, BiVO 4 nanostructure demonstrates high photocatalytic activity under visible light towards the degradation of methylene blue. Methylene blue can be degraded up to 90% within 30 min with a reaction rate constant of 0.058 min −1 . Moreover, the cycling stability of the catalyst is excellent to withstand unchanged degradation efficiency for at least 5 cycles.