Eight crystalline phases of bismuth vanadate by controllable hydrothermal synthesis exhibiting visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

•We successfully prepared eight crystalline phases of bismuth vanadate by applying the hydrothermal method.•m-BiVO4 exhibits the greatest visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity on the CV of a series bismuth vanadate.•In the degradation reaction, O2− was the major active species, whereas OH and h+ were the minor ones.•Eg were 2.0–2.3, 2.1–2.2, 2.1–2.3, 2.1–2.2, 2.3–2.5, 2.6, and 2.2–2.6 eV for eight bismuth vanadate, respectively.