Tailored Fabrication of Thoroughly Mesoporous BiVO4 Nanofibers and Their Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activities

Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is considered as a potentially attractive candidate for the O-2 evolution and photodegradation of organic pollutants. In an effort to develop visible -light -driven photocatalysts with high activities, the thoroughly mesoporous BiVO4 nanofibers were fabricated via a foaming -assisted electrospinning strategy. It was found that the introduced foaming agent of diisopropyl azodiformate within the solutions, plays a crucial role on the formation of thoroughly mesoporous BiVO4 nanofibers, making their growth tunable. The obtained mesoporous BiVO4 nanofibers possess well-defined one-dimensional mesoporous architectures with high purity in their morphology and a surface area of 22.5 m(2)/g, which is similar to 4 times that of conventional solid counterparts (5.8m(2)/g). Accordingly, they exhibit much higher efficient photocatalytic activities toward the degradation of rhodamine B under visible -light irradiation, which is 3 times that of conventional solid counterparts, suggesting their promising application as novel and efficient photocatalysts for water purification.