Tubular nanostructure becomes the researchful focus in environmental purification because of its unique features, however, the hollow fibrous BiVO4, famous as an efficient photocatalyst for water purification and oxidation, has not been achieved yet. Here, we employ organic vanadium salt to fabricate BiVO4 nanotubes by single-spinneret electrospinning without template. The organic salt can induce electrospinning gradient effect which plays a key role in the achievement of tubular nanostructure. Benefit from the unique structural properties of tubular nanostructure, BiVO4 nanotubes possess hollow interior, leading to strong light harvesting ability and large surface areas. For photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI), these contributions from tubular nanostructure could promote the photocatalytic performance relative to solid BiVO4 nanofibers. This organic salt induced electrospinning gradient effect is not subject to the usage amount, ratio and kind of as-employed salt, endowing the electrospinning method with bright vista for the fabrication of other materials with tubular nanostructure. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.