CoTiO<inf>3</inf>/Ag<inf>3</inf>VO<inf>4</inf> composite: A study on the role of CoTiO<inf>3</inf> and the active species in the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

Abstract

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. The role of CoTiO<inf>3</inf> and the possible active species in the methylene blue (MB) degradation over the visible-light-driven CoTiO<inf>3</inf>/Ag<inf>3</inf>VO<inf>4</inf> catalyst have firstly been investigated in this work. CoTiO<inf>3</inf> is found to play important roles in enhancing the visible light-harvesting ability of the composite and increasing electron-hole separation efficiency due to the hybrid effect between Ag<inf>3</inf>VO<inf>4</inf> and CoTiO<inf>3</inf>. The indirect probe experiments reveal that CoTiO<inf>3</inf>/Ag<inf>3</inf>VO<inf>4</inf> heterostructure provides large amount of active species, therefore a high photocatalytic activity could be obtained. The results clearly suggest that the photocatalytic MB degradation over this hybrid catalyst is mainly governed by direct hole oxidation.