  BiVO4, a visible-light response photocatalyst, has shown tremendous potential
because of abundant raw material sources, good stability and low cost. There
exist some limitations for further applicaitions due to poor capability to
separate electron-hole pairs. In fact, a single-component modification strategy
is barely adequate to obtain highy efficient photocatalytic performance. In
this work, P substituted some of the V atoms from VO4 oxoanions, namely P was
doped into the V sites in the host lattice of BiVO4 by a hydrothermal route.
Meanwhile, Ag as an attractive and efficient electron-cocatalyst was
selectively modified on the (010) facet of BiVO4 nanosheets via facile
photo-deposition. As a result, the obtained dually modified BiVO4 sheets
exhibited enhanced photocatalytic degradation property of methylene blue (MB).
In detail, photocatalytic rate constant (k) was 2.285 min-1g-1, which was 2.78
times higher than pristine BiVO4 nanosheets. Actually, P-doping favored the
formation of O vacancies, led to more charge carriers, and facilitated
photocatalytic reaction. On the other hand, metallic Ag loaded on (010) facet
effectively transferred photogenerated electrons, which consequently helped
electron-hole pairs separation. The present work may enlighten new thoughts for
smart design and controllable synthesis of highly efficient photocatalytic
materials.
