Intercalated Water Drives Anomalous Thermal Expansion in the Tetragonal Zircon Structured Bismuth Vanadate BiVO₄ Photocatalyst

Abstract

The thermal transformation of zircon to scheelite in BiVO4 was studied by in‐situ Synchrotron X‐ray diffraction and TGA/FTIR analysis. Upon heating, the tetragonal zircon polymorph of BiVO4 (tz‐BiVO4) transitioned to the tetragonal scheelite (ts‐)polymorph between 693‐773 K, then to monoclinic fergusonite (mf) polymorph upon cooling. An anomaly in thermal expansion was observed between 400‐500 K, associated with loss of H2O/NH4+. Heating tz‐BiVO4 resulted in contraction of the V‐O bond distance and VO4 polyhedra volume due to rotation of the VO4. Attempts to study this by neutron diffraction failed due to the large incoherent scatter from the hydrogenous species. Efforts to remove these species while maintaining the tz‐BiVO4 structure were unsuccessful, suggesting they play a role in stabilizing the zircon polymorph. The local structure of both mf‐BiVO4 and tz‐BiVO4 were investigated by X‐ray Pair Distribution Function analysis.