Visible light photodegradation of organics over VYO composite catalyst.

This paper presents a visible-light driven photocatalyst, VYO composite, which was synthesized by doping YVO(4) with V(2)O(5). The catalytic testing results indicate that the photocatalyst shows high activity for photodegradation of acetone under both UV and visible light. The highest acetone conversion was obtained over V(1.5)Y(1)O(x) composite catalyst. By doping a small amount of metal Pt the photocatalytic efficiency of the catalyst could be promoted further. It was also proved to be efficient for the photodegradation of methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol, and benzene. The physical and photophysical properties of the VYO composites were characterized by BET, XRD, FT-IR, Raman, UV-vis spectra, and photoluminescence spectra, respectively. On the basis of the investigation results, the high photocatalytic activity might be attributed to the coupling effect between YVO(4) and V(2)O(5).