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We report the synthesis of the taper-like BiVO4 nanorods by employing a solid-state grinding synthetic strategy. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicates that the as-prepared BiVO4 nanorods were crystallized in a monoclinic system. The diameter and length of taper-like nanorods are confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technology. The diameter and length of the taper-like nanorods are 100 nm and 1 μm, respectively. And the photocatalytic activity of the taper-like BiVO4 nanorods was evaluated by measuring the degradation of methylene blue (MB) in water under sunlight irradiation. MB was degraded nearly to nothing under sunlight irradiation for 120 min at room temperature in air. These results indicate the as-prepared product is a good sun-driven photocatalyst. In addition, the degradation mechanism of methylene blue over BiVO4 nanorods was tentatively investigated.

Sunlight-driven photocatalyst Bi38ZnO58 was synthesized by a solid-state reaction method. The synthesized product was characterized physically by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue was evaluated by spectrophotometric analysis; meanwhile, the possible pathway of the photocatalytic reaction also has been studied. In addition, the band edge position of Bi38ZnO58 was roughly calculated according to the electronegativity of the constituent atoms, and the calculation result further confirms the strong oxidative property of the photocatalyst under the sunlight irradiation.