Highly efficient NIR responsive and upconversion enhanced BiVO4:Er3+ nanofibers for photocatalytic degradation of RhB

Collecting near infrared (NIR) light in the rich solar spectrum is of great significance to improve the utilization of clean and renewable energy. Therefore, the design and synthesis of photocatalysts to efficiently utilize NIR have attracted wide attention of researchers. BiVO
4
:Er
³⁺
nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning to prepare photocatalyst with both up-conversion (UC) luminescence and photocatalytic properties. As expected, BiVO
4
:Er
³⁺
samples show better performance than bare BiVO
4
in the process of photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), and the BiVO
4
:3%Er
³⁺
displays the highest degradation rate (95.20%) among all the samples. More importantly, the enhanced photocurrent confirms that the Er
³⁺
ions doping is beneficial to improving the photocatalytic efficiency. This work will provide a feasible guide for the further design of photocatalysts with NIR response.