Hydrothermal synthesis and visible-light-driven oxygen production from water splitting of InVO4 micron-rods

A new type of InVO₄ micron-rods photocatalyst was successfully synthesised by a facile additive-assisted hydrothermal method as a novel O₂ evolution photocatalyst. The as-obtained micro-rods are well-crystallised with about 2 μm lengths and 500 nm widths. In the authors system, the sodium dodecyl sulfate amount, as well as the reaction time and temperature, plays an important role in the formation of the InVO₄ micronrods. From the UV-vis absorption spectrum, the bandgap energy of as-obtained InVO₄ microrods is 2.3 eV. Under visible-light irradiation, InVO₄ microrods show excellent photocatalytic O₂ production activity (2.663 mmol h^-1 g^-1) with AgNO₃ as sacrifice reagents.