Preparation of Nanosized Photocatalyst InVO₄ and Its Photocatalytic Activity for Water Decomposition

To improve the efficiency of photocatalytic water decomposition, nanosized photocatalyst InVO₄ was synthesized by template-directing self-assembling method. The crystal structures, morphologies, surface areas, and photon absorption of the synthesized InVO₄ were characterized by means of XRD, TEM, SEM, BET, and UV-vis techniques, respectively. The effects of precursor-to-template mol ratio, pH value, crystallization temperature, extraction, and calcination temperature have been investigated. And the abilities of visible light respondence of nano-InVO₄ and anatase TiO₂ have been compared. Results show that nano-InVO₄ with different crystal structures can be selectively obtained by changing the precursor-to-template ratio in the starting materials or by changing the calcination temperature. The ability of visible light respondence of nano-InVO₄ is greatly improved than that of antase TiO₂, and it can evolve hydrogen from water in a rate of 16.6 mmol/(g·h) under UV light irradiation, which is far better than InVO₄ synthesized by solid-state method.