Visible-Light Nanostructured Photocatalysts—A Review

This paper reviews the recent research and development of novel visible-light induced photocatalysts with nanostructures. In recent years, Ag₃PO₄-based and BiVO₄-based nanomaterials have drawn wide attention due to their narrow band gap and excellent photocatalytic performance. The development of the new material covers the synthesis condition, unique morphology, further modification which focused on the Ag₃PO₄ and BiVO₄, respectively. Meanwhile, titanium dioxide has already become one of the classical photocatalyst. However, the band gap of TiO₂ (3.2 eV) limits its efficient utilization of solar energy, two categories novel modification methods of TiO₂ are proposed to make them active under visible light illumination. Using polymers and dye to modify TiO₂ is a wonderful approach to achieve excellent electronic and optical properties mainly in aspect of photocatalytic application. Therefore, the paper summarizes novel nanosized photocatalysts with visible-light response including Ag₃PO₄-based, BiVO₄-based and TiO₂-based materials, and suggests the further research prospect for the visible-light induced photocatalysts.