Z-scheme CdS/BiVO4 Photocatalyst for Highly Efficient Photodegradation of Organic Pollutants and DFT Calculation

Abstract

In the field of photocatalysis, the heterojunction strategy is one of the effective ways to settle the problems of rapid recombination and sluggish mobility of the photo-generated carriers. Herein, we used a strategy of electrophoretic deposition to synthesize Z-scheme CdS/BiVO 4 . Interestingly, compared with the pristine CdS and BiVO 4 , the prepared CdS/BiVO 4 showed effective charge separation, high degradation efficiency and well photocatalytic stability. It demonstrated that electrophoretic deposition can successfully construct photocatalyst steadily and effectively heterostructured CdS/BiVO 4 . Meanwhile, the electron transfer paths between BiVO 4 and CdS were probed by the DFT calculations. We infer that there is a Z-scheme mechanism between BiVO 4 and CdS. Moreover, this efficient strategy can support more applications for more efficient composition design of semiconductor heterojunctions.