Synthesis of Pt/FeVO₄: A novel heterostructure for efficient photocatalysis

In this work, a unique platinum-loaded iron vanadate (Pt/FeVO4) composite for escalating the photocatalytic performance via the facile sonicated assisted hydrothermal method was synthesized. Morphological results revealed that the FeVO4 and well-dispersed Pt/FeVO4 particle is in the range of 150-200 nm size, which developed transportation of the photogenerated electrons into FeVO4, resulting in efficient separation of the photogenerated carriers in coupled Pt/FeVO4 nanocomposite heterostructure. The multi-characterizations results indicate an excellent adsorption ability and enhanced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Pt/FeVO4 composites as these composites are strongly associated with Pt loading. The induced impedance spectroscopy and photo-luminance results demonstrated that Pt enhances separation efficiency as well as transferring rates for photo-generated charges. The ESR data suggests that the reactive oxygen species (OH & BULL;) was the most reactive specie agent with h+, & BULL;O2 having a minor role in methylene blue (MB) degradation.