Abstract
TmVO4 precursor gel was prepared by sol-gel method using thulium oxide, nitric acid, ammonium metavanadate and citric acid as main raw materials. Then the xerogel was calcined at 600–800 °C in muffle furnace to prepare TmVO4. The prepared samples were characterized by thermogravimetric differential scanning analysis (TG-DSC), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy(DRS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR). The visible-light photocatalytic activity of TmVO4 was studied by using methylene blue solution as simulated wastewater. The result shows that TmVO4 can be obtained by calcination at 700 °C. The average grain size is about 80 nm and the bandgap is 2.16 eV. Under visible-light conditions, the degradation rate of methylene blue can reach more than 90% when methylene blue solution of 10 mg/L was illuminated 60 min in the presence of nanoparticulate TmVO4. The nanoparticulate TmVO4 has excellent photocatalytic degradation activity for methylene blue. Nanoparticulate TmVO4 prepared by sol-gel method has broad application prospects in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants.