Preparation of porous BiVO4 fibers by electrospinning and their photocatalytic performance under visible light

In this study, porous BiVO4 fibers were fabricated by a simple electrospinning technique followed by a controllable annealing of electrospun precursor fibers at different temperatures. The crystal structure, morphology, pore structure and photocatalytic properties of as-made porous BiVO4 fibers were systematically investigated. The results show that the final products have fibrous morphology and the phase structure of porous fibers belongs to monoclinic scheelite structure. The crystallinity and crystalline size increases, but the specific surface area decrease with increasing calcination temperature. These porous fibers all exhibit good optical absorption in visible light. As the sample calcined at 500 °C has larger specific surface area and better crystallinity, it exhibits the best photodegrading properties for rhodamine B solution.