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Photoelectrocatalytic oxidation of phenol for water treatment using a BiVO4 thin-film photoanode

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2016

Yasmina Bennani ,
Paula Perez-Rodriguez ,
Mathew J. Alani ,
Wilson A. Smith ,
Luuk C. Rietveld ,
Miro Zeman  and
Arno H.M. Smets
Yasmina Bennani*
Affiliation:
Drinking Water, Department of Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, 2628 CNDelft, The Netherlands
Paula Perez-Rodriguez
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Materials and Devices, Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, 2628 CDDelft, The Netherlands
Mathew J. Alani
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Materials and Devices, Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, 2628 CDDelft, The Netherlands
Wilson A. Smith
Affiliation:
Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion (MECS) group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Sciences, 2628 BLDelft, The Netherlands
Luuk C. Rietveld
Affiliation:
Drinking Water, Department of Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, 2628 CNDelft, The Netherlands
Miro Zeman
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Materials and Devices, Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, 2628 CDDelft, The Netherlands
Arno H.M. Smets
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Materials and Devices, Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, 2628 CDDelft, The Netherlands
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: bennani.yasmina@gmail.com
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Abstract

The removal of organics by photoelectrocatalytic oxidation offers a viable option to remove the contaminants at low concentrations. In this paper, we propose a BiVO4 thin films synthesized via spray pyrolysis for photoelectrocatalyic oxidation of phenol with solar light. We compare the properties of BiVO4 with those of the commonly used photocatalyst TiO2. In addition, BiVO4 films with W gradient doping were fabricated and tested for improving the photocatalytic performance of BiVO4. X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, incident photon to current efficiency and spectrophotometry have been conducted for BiVO4 films of different thicknesses, as well as for TiO2. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and dark conductivity measurements were conducted. Phenol removal has been measured for both the TiO2 and BiVO4 samples. The best performance was found to be for a 300 nm undoped BiVO4 film, being able to reduce the phenol concentration up to 30.0% of the initial concentration in four hours.

Keywords

thin filmsurface chemistryphotochemical
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 31 , Issue 17 , 14 September 2016 , pp. 2627 - 2639
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Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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