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Transition metal vanadates (MVO; M=Bi, Fe, Zn) synthesized by a hydrothermal method for efficient photocatalysis

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Abstract

Metal vanadates (MVO) have attained a lot of consideration in recent years because of their unique structural and photoluminescence features. These metal vanadates adopt structures with different phases depending on the magnitude of the bivalent present. Here, the hydrothermal approach was used to synthesize three different phases of MVO (M=Bi, Fe, and Zn). After synthesis temperatures of 200 °C for 24 h, powders of BiVO4 (monoclinic), FeVO4 (anorthic), and ZnV2O4 (cubic) were produced. Scherrer’s evaluation confirmed that these crystallites were nanosized. According to BET data, ZnV2O4 has a sufficient surface area. The bandgap transition of metal vanadates is of the order of FeVO4 < BiVO4 < ZnV2O4 based on UV–Vis spectra. These MVO have interesting optical properties, and photoluminescence (PL) analysis revealed blue-green emission peaks in PL spectra and other obtained results exposed that crystallinity, shape, and size of the metal vanadates have a significant impact on the photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic degradation of crystal violet (C25H30ClN3l) dye over these hydrothermally synthesized MVO was investigated. In this research, ZnV2O4 spinel oxide offered the best photodegradation efficiency of crystal violet at 99.92% within 60 min under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic mechanism of this MVO was postulated and carefully reviewed.

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Muhammad Munir Sajid thanks Dr. Zhengjun Zhang of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, for his assistance with characterization procedures. Dr. Muhammad Munir Sajid also acknowledges the financial support by the State Scholarship Fund of China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 201808410144), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51202107), and the Foundation of Henan Educational Committee (Grant No. 20A480003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials, School of Physics, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Muhammad Munir Sajid & Haifa Zhai

  2. Department of Physics, University College in Aljumum, Umm Al-Qura University, P.O. Box 715, Makkah, 21955, Saudi Arabia

    Hasan Assaedi

  3. Henan Engineering Research Center of Design and Recycle for Advanced Electrochemical Energy Storage Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China

    Haifa Zhai

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MMS contributed to methodology, material experiments, writing original draft preparation, material characterization, photocatalysis data analysis, and investigation; HA contributed to reviewing, editing, conceptualization, methodology, and sources. HZ contributed to material characterization, reviewing, and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hasan Assaedi.

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Sajid, M.M., Assaedi, H. & Zhai, H. Transition metal vanadates (MVO; M=Bi, Fe, Zn) synthesized by a hydrothermal method for efficient photocatalysis. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 539 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-09923-5

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