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Crystal-phase engineering of BiVO4 induced by N-doped carbon quantum dots for photocatalytic application

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Abstract

Crystal phase engineering was applied for BiVO4 via the introduction of N-doped CQDs (NCDs), in which the phase of BiVO4 was converted from monoclinic phase to tetragonal phase, generating a self-heterostructure. The intense heterostructure between NCDs and BiVO4 via strong electronic interaction, confirmed by the conversion of crystal phase and XPS results, led to the promoted separation and migration ability of photoinduced carriers. Moreover, the varied band structure (more negative Fermi level) of BiVO4 after the introduction of NCDs and the up-conversion luminescent property of CQDs led to the vast generation of O2−, which was confirmed to play a significant role during RhB photodegradation. However, there existed an optimal introducing amount of NCDs, confirmed to be 30 mg, which revealed 100% photodegradation efficiency after 180 min illumination. The decrease of photocatalytic activity in the condition of excessive NCDs introducing amount was ascribed to the aggregation of these quantum dots or the cover of the active plane of BiVO4 by NCDs. In addition, the photodegradation mechanism exploration revealed that both O2− and photoinduced holes acted as radical species during the photoreduction process, and O2− played more significant role.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51808296, 51802160), the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST (2243141601034).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology (CICAEET), Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Cai, Junxiang Fu & Yunxia Zhao

  2. Advanced Analysis & Testing Center, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, People’s Republic of China

    Chenyao Hu

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  1. Wei Cai
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WC contributed to the Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition, and Writing-review & editing of the manuscript. JF contributed to the Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, and Writing-original draft of the manuscript. CH contributed to the Methodology and Formal analysis of the manuscript. YZ contributed to the Formal analysis and Funding acquisition of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wei Cai.

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Cai, W., Fu, J., Hu, C. et al. Crystal-phase engineering of BiVO4 induced by N-doped carbon quantum dots for photocatalytic application. J Mater Sci 59, 4118–4135 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-09480-0

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