Impact of Erbium (Er) and Yttrium (Y) doping on BiVO crystal structure towards the enhancement of photoelectrochemical water splitting and photocatalytic performance.

An efficient BiVOnanocatalyst with Erbium (Er) and Yttrium (Y) doping was synthesized via a facile microwave irradiation route and the obtained materials were further characterized through various techniques such as p-XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, UV-Vis DRS, PL, LSV, and EISanalysis. The obtained results revealed that the rare metals induce the stabilization of the monoclinic-tetragonal crystalline structure with a distinct morphology. The yttrium doped BiVO (Y-BiVO) monoclinic-tetragonal exhibited anefficient photoelectrochemical water splitting and photocatalytic performanceare compared to bare BiVO.

Investigation of the structural, optical and crystallographic properties of BiWO/Ag plasmonic hybrids and their photocatalytic and electron transfer characteristics.

Effective exploitation of visible-light unique structural and electronic properties has enormously attracted more researchers for photocatalytic systems. Here, we have fabricated an efficient BiWO-Ag plasmonic hybrid via the photoreduction technique and the obtained materials were well characterized with sophisticated instruments. The BW-Ag-1 catalyst showed the maximum photocatalytic activity for the degradation of cationic dyes rhodamine B (RhB) and malachite green (MG) and the rate constant was 2.