Microwave-assisted synthesis of monoclinic–tetragonal BiVO4 heterojunctions with enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline

Recently, the controlled synthesis of semiconductor photocatalysts has received much attention in the field of pollutant degradation. In this study, BiVO4 photocatalysts of different crystalline phases (monoclinic scheelite (M-phase), tetragonal zircon (T-phase) and monoclinic–tetragonal heterojunction (M–T)) have been successfully synthesized via a facile microwave-assisted method. The crystalline phases of the products were controlled by switching the organic additives. The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared samples were evaluated by the degradation of tetracycline (TC) under visible light irradiation. The obtained results clearly showed that the M–T BiVO4 exhibited the highest photodegradation ratio of the three samples of 80.5% in 1 h, which can be attributed to the heterojunction structure between different phases.