Characterization of BiVO4 nanoparticles prepared by sonochemical process.

Nowadays, environment highly encounters various pollutants including toxic gases, organic volatiles and water pollutant. Many scientists have taken the effort to reduce or eliminate pollutant using photocatalytic materials. Due to good ferroelectric property in ferroelastic crystal as a result of the reduction in symmetry between the paraelastic and ferroelastic phases, it makes bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) one of attractive ferroelectric materials. In addition, BiVO4 with low optical band gap could be activated by visible light illumination so that it would be a potential candidate as a visible light driven photocatalyst. This work was carried out to synthesize BiVO4 nanoparticles by simple but effective method via sonochemical process through chemical route assisted by ultrasonic irradiation. The crystalline structure and surface morphologies of the synthesized products were observed by X-ray diffraction technique and Scanning Electron Microscope, respectively. Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy were used to approve the BiVO4 chemical bonding and relevant crystalline formation. Photocatalytic activity was studied by mean of the degradation of organic dye assigned as organic compound under visible light irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]