Photocatalytic performance of CaBiVMoO 8 catalysts for orange G and rhodamine B degradation L. M. Cisneros Corte ´s 1 • S. Obrego ´n 1 • D. B. Herna ´ndez-Uresti 1 • S. Mejia-Rosales 1 Received: 7 January 2017 / Accepted: 18 April 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Abstract A novel CaBiVMoO 8 photocatalyst has been prepared by a simple coprecipitation technique at several pH values. The obtained samples were thor- oughly characterized by X-ray powder diffraction analysis, ultraviolet–visible (UV– Vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements, and their degradation of orange G and rho- damine B dyes evaluated under UV–Vis irradiation conditions. The sample pre- pared at pH *6 showed the best photocatalytic performance for both dyes. Also, photodegradation was favored under acidic conditions (pH *4) of the aqueous solution, with degradation rate increased by about 4 and 18 times for rhodamine B and orange G, respectively. A tentative explanation is provided by taking into account the point of zero charge of the photocatalyst. In addition, several radical scavenger agents were used to elucidate the importance of different reactive oxygen species during the photocatalytic process. Keywords CaBiVMoO 8 Á Photocatalysis Á Orange G Á Rhodamine B Á Dyes Introduction Due to the increasing amounts of wastewater being produced by industrial activity, the scientific community is searching for alternatives for its treatment [1, 2]. Photocatalysis has attracted considerable interest due to its potential applications in environmental remediation [3], which is a worldwide concern. Many photocatalysts & D. B. Herna ´ndez-Uresti ing.dianahdz@gmail.com 1 CICFIM - Facultad de Ciencias Fı ´sico Matema ´ticas, Universidad Auto ´noma de Nuevo Leo ´n, Av. Universidad S/N, 66455 San Nicola ´s de los Garza, Nuevo Leo ´n, Mexico 123 Res Chem Intermed DOI 10.1007/s11164-017-2959-7