Enhanced Photoredox Activity of BiVO4/Prussian Blue Nanocomposites for Efficient Pollutant Removal from Aqueous Media under Low-Cost LEDs Illumination

Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4, BV) is a widely explored photocatalyst for photo(electro)chemical applications, but its full photocatalytic potential is hindered by the fast recombination and low mobility of photogenerated charge carriers. Herein, we propose the photodeposition of different amounts of Prussian blue (PB) cocatalysts on the surface of monoclinic BV to obtain BV-PB composite photocatalysts with increased photoactivity. The as-prepared BV and BV-PB composites were characterized by an array of analytic techniques such scanning eletron microscopy (SEM), transmission eletron microscopy (TEM), X-day diffraction (XRD), and spectroscopic techniques including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), photoluminescence (PL), and Raman spectroscopy. The addition of PB not only increases the absorption of visible light, as indicated by DRS, but also improves the charge carriers’ transfer across the photocatalysts/solution interface and hence reduces electron-hole (e−-h+) recombination, as confirmed by EIS and PL measurements. Resultantly, the BV-PB composite photocatalysts with optimum PB loading exhibited enhanced Cr(VI) photoreduction efficiency as compared to pristine BV under visible light illumination from low-power blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), thanks to the cocatalyst role of PB which mediates the transfer of photoexcited conduction band (CB) electrons from BV to Cr(VI) species in solution. Moreover, as compared to pristine BV and BV + H2O2, a drastic increase in the methylene blue (MB) photo-oxidation efficiency was observed for BV-PB in the presence of a minute quantity of H2O2 due to a synergic effect between the photocatalytic and Fenton-like processes. While pure BV photodegraded around 70% of MB dye within 120 min, the BV-PB/H2O2 and BV/H2O2 system could degrade almost 100% of the dye within 20 min (kobs. = 0.375 min−1) and 40 min (kobs. = 0.055 min−1), respectively. The practical approach employed in this work may pioneer new prospects for synthesizing new BV-based photocatalytic systems with low production costs and high photoredox efficiencies.