INVESTIGATION ON THE IMPACT OF PH ON THE PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF SONOCHEMICALLY SYNTHESISED BIVO4

Abstract

The pH of BiVO4 sample synthesized using facile sonication method is varied. The impact of pH variation on structure, morphology, visible light photocatalytic activity of BiVO4 is discussed, an ideal pH which yields better catalytic efficiency is figured out. The crystal structure and phases of the samples were analyzed using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) which confirmed that neither extremely acidic nor extremely basic condition are desirable for monoclinic BiVO4 to be formed. The morphology has been investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The band gap determined using DRS revealed that sample with pH 7 (neutral) had lower bandgap. Better photocatalytic performance on the degradation of Methyl Blue (MB) under visible light is obtained under pH 7 which may be attributed to its morphology and bandgap.