Effects of cation concentration on photocatalytic performance over magnesium vanadates

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · APL Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4922833· OSTI ID:22499263

Li, Peng ^[1]; Zhou, Wei ^[2]; Wang, Xin; Zhang, Yan; Wang, Defa ^[3]; Umezawa, Naoto; Abe, Hideki ^[1]; Ye, Jinhua ^[1]

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1. Catalytic Materials Group, Environmental Remediation Materials Unit, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044 (Japan)
2. Department of Physics, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin (China)
3. TU-NIMS Joint Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin (China)

A series of magnesium vanadates (MgV {sub 2}O{sub 6}, Mg{sub 2}V {sub 2}O{sub 7}, and Mg{sub 3}V {sub 2}O{sub 8}) were synthesized to investigate the effect of cation concentration on photocatalytic performance. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission-scanning electron microscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The photocatalytic O{sub 2} evolution experiments under visible light irradiation showed Mg{sub 2}V {sub 2}O{sub 7} exhibits the best performance, while Mg{sub 3}V {sub 2}O{sub 8} has the lowest activity. The density functional theory calculations indicated that the lowest unoccupied states of Mg{sub 3}V {sub 2}O{sub 8} are the mostly localized by the cation layers. The fluorescence spectra and fluorescence decay curves gave evident performances of excited states of magnesium vanadates and pointed out MgV {sub 2}O{sub 6} has a very short excited electron lift-time. Mg{sub 2}V {sub 2}O{sub 7} performs high photocatalytic activity because of its high electron mobility and long electron life-time.

• OSTI ID: 22499263
• Journal Information: APL Materials, Journal Name: APL Materials Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 3; ISSN 2166-532X; ISSN AMPADS
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CATIONS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
DENSITY FUNCTIONAL METHOD
ELECTRON MOBILITY
ELECTRONS
EXCITED STATES
FIELD EMISSION
FLUORESCENCE
FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY
IRRADIATION
MAGNESIUM
PHOTOCATALYSIS
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
VANADATES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION