Preparation and Visible-light-driven Photocatalytic Performance of Porous Rod-like FeVO4

Pure triclinic porous FeVO4 with multiple morphologies were fabricated by adopting hydrothermal strategy using Fe(NO3)(3) and NH4VO3 as inorganic source and NH3 solution as pH adjuster. The samples were characterized by means of techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. It was found that hydrothermal temperature and pH of the precursor solution exerted a great effect on the crystalline structure and the particle morphology of the product. Porous triclinic FeVO4 nanorods were generated hydrothermally at 180 degrees C and pH of 4 or 7, sheet-like FeVO4 was obtained at pH 4.0 and hydrothermal temperature of 120 degrees C. However, the mixture of Fe2O3 (in majority) and FeVO4 (in minority) was prepared when pH of the precursor solution was raised to 10 at 180 degrees C or the hydrothermal temperature was raised to 240 degrees C at pH 4.0. Among the FeVO4 samples, porous FeVO4 nanorods with the highest surface area of 10.4 m(2)/g exhibited the best visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance for the degradation of MO. It is concluded that such an excellent photocatalytic performance is attributed to its higher crystallinity, surface area, and surface oxygen vacancy density, porous structure, and lower bandgap energy.