A series of carbon modified BiVO4 (C-BiVO4) photocatalysts were synthesized by impregnation calcination method of BiVO4 with glucose, sucrose and cellulose as precursors, respectively. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, HR-TEM, SEM, Raman, BET, UV-vis DRS and PL Their photocatalytic activities were investigated by degradation of phenol under the visible light. The precursor and loading of carbon had remarkable effects on physical-chemical properties of samples and degradation activities of phenol. The increase of the number of carbon ring in precursors led to a better crystallinity, smaller grain size, larger surface area and higher separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs. The increase of loading led to a smaller catalyst grain size, larger surface area, higher visible light absorption and higher separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs. The results showed that the 0.5 wt.% of C-BiVO4-cellulose has the best photocatalytic activity and degraded 88.7% of 5 mg/L phenol. Besides, addition of 25 mmol KBrO3 as an electron capture agent can degrade 27.4% of 1000 mg/L phenol. The degradation efficiency of the same system above mentioned under sunlight irradiation was 22.6%. In addition, the relationship between the photocatalytic activity of C-BiVO4 and its physical-chemical properties was also discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.