Solution Combustion Synthesis of YVO₄ Nanopowder Using V₂O₅.nH₂O Gel: Photodegradation Studies

Abstract

In the present work, yttrium orthovanadate (YVO₄) nanopowder has been synthesized via solution combustion route using citric acid as fuel. The primary aim is to establish a facile solution combustion reaction to produce YVO₄ nanopowder with lower band gap using vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅.nH₂O) gel as precursor and then investigation of its photocatalytic activity against anionic and cationic dyes in presence of visible light. The powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis reveals the formation of pure YVO₄ with tetragonal phase having crystallite size ∼30.95 nm. Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) exhibits highly porous nature of the product. Breauner-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area analysis of YVO₄ nanopowder shows a relatively large specific surface area of ∼46.57 m².g^–1. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) exhibits uniform particle size distribution with average particle sizes varying in the range of 20-100 nm. The band gap of 2.16 eV is calculated using the ultraviolet diffuse reflectance spectrum (UV-DRS) of YVO₄. The photoluminescence spectrum of YVO₄ nanopowder shows emission peak at 572.2 nm. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) using YVO₄ as photocatalyst shows 92% decolorization in presence of visible radiation. Photocatalytic activity has also been extended to investigate the degradation of amaranth dye and rhodamine-B (Rh-B) under visible light irradiation which reveals 80% degradation of amaranth dye but Rh-B shows only 65% decolorization using YVO₄ nanopowder. Hence YVO₄ nanopowder shows good photocatalytic activity for MB and amaranth dye compared to Rh-B.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Combustion synthesis
• Vanadium pentoxide gel
• Yttrium orthovanadate
• Methylene blue
• Rhodamine-B
• Photocatalytic activity