Photodegradation of acetone over V-Gd-O composite catalysts under visible light.

A series of visible light active catalysts, V-Gd-O composites, were prepared by the impregnation method. In the photodegradation of acetone, the highest acetone conversion was obtained on V(1)Gd(1)O(x) catalyst under visible light. The physical and photophysical properties of the composite catalyst have been characterized by XRD, FT-IR, Raman, BET surface area, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The characterization indicates the V-Gd-O photocatalyst exhibits three phases: Gd(2)O(3), GdVO(4) and V(2)O(5). On the basis of the calculated energy band positions and PL spectra, the high activity of the V-Gd-O catalysts could be attributed to the coupling effect between GdVO(4) and V(2)O(5) in retarding the recombination of electron-hole pairs.