Facile hydrothermal synthesis of BiVO4 nanomaterials for degradation of industrial waste

Muhammad Salim Mansha; Tahir Iqbal; Muhammad Farooq; Khalid Nadeem Riaz; Sumera Afsheen; Muhammad Shehzad Sultan; Nabil Al-Zaqri; Ismail Warad; Arslan Masood

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15978

Facile hydrothermal synthesis of BiVO₄ nanomaterials for degradation of industrial waste

Heliyon. 2023 May 4;9(5):e15978. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15978. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Muhammad Salim Mansha¹, Tahir Iqbal¹, Muhammad Farooq¹, Khalid Nadeem Riaz², Sumera Afsheen³, Muhammad Shehzad Sultan⁴, Nabil Al-Zaqri⁵, Ismail Warad⁶, Arslan Masood¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, 50700, Pakistan.
² Department of Physics, University of Okara, Okara, Pakistan.
³ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, 50700, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR, 00925, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, AN-Najah National University, P.O. Box 7, Nablus, Palestine.

Abstract

Bismuth Vanadate (BiVO₄) has been synthesized using simple hydrothermal technique while varying the pH of concentrated H₂SO₄. With the increase of pH values (from 06 to 10), the morphology of the synthesized material tuned in the form of nano-spheres and cubes in the range from 50 to 60 nm. The lateral affect tuned the bandgap of BiVO₄ from 2.47 eV to 2.50 eV which is significant in the context of present study. It is worth mentioning that desirous bandgap corresponds to the visible spectrum of the solar light being abundantly available and finds many applications in real life. The synthesized nanomaterial BiVO₄ has been characterized through UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The synthesized BiVO₄ has been tested as photocatalyst for degradation of industrial pollutant from Leather Field Industry. Said catalyst (BiVO₄) successfully degraded the industrial pollutant after 3 h under solar light irradiation. Therefore, the BiVO₄ can be regarded as potential photocatalyst for degradation of industrial waste which is highly needed.

Keywords: Bismuth vanadate nano-spheres; Crystal growth; Industrial pollutants; Photo-catalysis.