Publication

Abstract : The ternary heterojunction, BiVO4/GO/g-C3N4 was synthesized via hydrothermal method under a temperature of 180 °C. The prepared materials are post treated with glow discharge argon plasma treatment. Prepared materials shows monoclinic phase of BiVO4 and they show rod like structure. The plasma treated material shows improved degradation rate, the heterojunction after the plasma treatment (RBNP) gives 96 % of methylene blue decomposition in 180 min. The photocatalytic result is in accordance with the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs and presence of oxygen vacancies. The presence of oxygen vacancies are confirmed by XPS and EPR results. The BET analysis result confirms the presence of higher specific surface area in the plasma treated heterojunction sample, RBNP. The solution with highest degradation rate has been used for growing fenugreek plants to study the toxic effect of degraded solution on plant growth. The phytotoxicity result confirms that, the degraded solution can only slightly affect the shoot length of the plant while retaining the root length.