reactive magnetron sputtered bivo4 thin-film as an efficient visible light photocatalyst

Having strong photoactivity under visible light, bivo4 thin film is considered a great candidate to replace low efficient uv-active photocatalysts e.g. tio2, and to reduce recyclability and reusability problems of powder photocatalysts. in this research, bivo4 thin films were deposited on fused silica substrate using reactive magnetron sputtering employing metallic bi and v targets, followed by a post-annealing treatment for 2 h at 450 ˚c, which is relatively high compared to bi melting point (271 ˚c), to obtain nanoporous morphology based on kirkendall effect. the thin films were characterized by x-ray diffraction (xrd), field emission scanning electron microscopy (fesem), energy dispersive spectroscopy (eds) and ultraviolet-visible-infrared spectroscopy (uv-vis-ir). the xrd data showed that the as-deposited films were amorphous, and after the post-annealing treatment, the monoclinic scheelite bivo4 crystal structure was obtained. fesem observations exhibited nanopores with an average diameter of 20-40 nm. uv-vis spectrophotometry results proved light absorption in the visible region with a bandgap value of 2.45 ev. the thin film managed to photodegrade 80 % of rhodamine-b solution after 7 h, showing the great photoactivity of bivo4 thin films. these results established that the combination of reactive magnetron sputtering and post-annealing treatment is an effective technique to produce nanoporous bivo4 thin films with great potential in photocatalysis for water treatment applications using solar energy.

Reactive magnetron sputtered BiVO4 thin-film as an efficient visible light photocatalyst

Having strong photoactivity under visible light, BiVO4 thin film is considered a great candidate to replace low efficient UV-active photocatalysts e.g. TiO2, and to reduce recyclability and reusability problems of powder photocatalysts. In this research, BiVO4 thin films were deposited on fused silica substrate using reactive magnetron sputtering employing metallic Bi and V targets, followed by a post-annealing treatment for 2 h at 450 ˚C, which is relatively high compared to Bi melting point (271 ˚C), to obtain nanoporous morphology based on Kirkendall effect. The thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and ultraviolet-visible-infrared spectroscopy (UV-Vis-IR). The XRD data showed that the as-deposited films were amorphous, and after the post-annealing treatment, the monoclinic scheelite BiVO4 crystal structure was obtained. FESEM observations exhibited nanopores with an average diameter of 20-40 nm. UV-Vis spectrophotometry results proved light absorption in the visible region with a bandgap value of 2.45 eV. The thin film managed to photodegrade 80 % of Rhodamine-B solution after 7 h, showing the great photoactivity of BiVO4 thin films. These results established that the combination of reactive magnetron sputtering and post-annealing treatment is an effective technique to produce nanoporous BiVO4 thin films with great potential in photocatalysis for water treatment applications using solar energy.