Synthesis of morphologically controllable BiVO4/Bi2O2CO3 heterojunction nanocomposites with visible light photocatalytic and electrocatalytic properties

Abstract

BiVO₄/Bi₂O₂CO₃ heterojunction nanocomposite was prepared using a solvothermal reaction method with urea as the auxiliary solution. The formation of Bi₂O₂CO₃ generated in the reaction process was controlled by the amount of urea. The particle morphology was gradually changed from a dense spindle structure of pure BiVO₄ to a sheet structure of BiVO₄/Bi₂O₂CO₃, and these sheet structures tend to become thicker as the urea content increases. The phase transformation can generate more active sites and effectively control the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, enhancing the photogenerated carrier separation. The degradation rate of methylene blue for the heterojunction nanocomposite is about 2 times that of BiVO₄. From the hydrogen evolution reaction data, it is also found from the data of hydrogen evolution that BiVO₄/Bi₂O₂CO₃ has high kinetic performance and faster electrocatalytic efficiency, and the hydrogen evolution performance is enhanced.