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Defect pyrochlore oxides have attracted a great interest as promising luminescent materials due to their flexible composition and high electron/hole mobility. In this work, we investigate the structural and electronic properties of lanthanide-doped (Ln) defect pyrochlore oxides \ce{KNbWO6}:0.125Ln$^{3+}$ by using first-principles calculations. We perform structural optimizations of various defect pyrochlore models and calculate their electronic structures, revealing that hydration has a significant influence on both local symmetry around Eu$^{3+}$ ion and band structures with an alteration of their luminescent behaviour. In the hydrated compounds, the electric-dipole $^5$D$_0-^7$F$_2$ transition is found to be partially suppressed by the raised local symmetry, and the water molecules in the compounds can mediate the non-radiative energy transfer between the activator Eu$^{3+}$ ions and the host, resulting in the quenching effect. It turns out that the oxygen vacancies are detrimental to luminescence as they reduce the Eu$^{3+}$ ion in its vicinity to Eu$^{2+}$ ion and also serve as traps for conduction electrons excited by incident light. Our calculations for \ce{KNbWO6}:0.125Ln$^{3+}$ (Ln = Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm) support that defect pyrochlore oxide \ce{KNbWO6} can also be used as luminescence host for Ln$^{3+}$ ion doping, giving a valuable insight into a variation trend in luminescent properties of these materials at atomic level.

The heterostructure Ag@WO3–x(x=0.1 or 1) composites with high selectivity for breaking azo-bond were obtained by in situ reduction of Ag2WO4. The crystal structure and morphology of Ag@WO3–x were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscope(SEM) and transmission electron microscope(TEM). The residue solution of methyl orange(MO) after degradation was tested by gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) to analyze the exact components. The results indicate that the products after degradation are N,N-dimethylaniline, N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine and sulfanilic acid. This is caused by specific breaking of azo-bond in MO. The azo-bond breaking of MO by Ag@WO3–x could occur in dark without any light illumination. Therefore, we proposed a possible mechanism for this azo-bond breaking reaction based on the reaction condition and results.

Magnetic Fe3O4 nanospheres with a average diameter of (201±0.5) nm were synthesized at 200 °C via a solvothermal method. The as-synthesized Fe3O4 nanospheres performed an efficiency in the Fenton degradation of xylenol orange with a degradation rate of 90%—95%. Additionally, the catalyst was easily recyclable and the recovery rate was greater than 90%. Moreover, the catalyst could be regenerated under an ultrasonic treatment, and the degradation performance remained essentially the same. More importantly, the degradation rate varied with respect to the amount of H2O2 and the pH of the best reaction process. And the reaction efficiency was achieved with 1.5 mL of H2O2 in an acidic environment.

A facile approach was developed to prepare highly dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles with selected phase. The crystallization phase of the nanoparticles can be easily tuned from anatase to rutile by the dosage of hydrochloric acid in the reaction system. The crystallite size of the as-prepared anatase TiO2 nanoparticles was ca. 3.2 nm with high dispersion. A transparent TiO2 colloid was obtained by dispersing the as-prepared anatase TiO2 nanoparticles in deionized water without any organic additives added. The concentration of TiO2-H2O colloid can be as high as 1600 g/L. The optical transmittance of TiO2-H2O colloid with a low concentration was nearly 100% in the visible region. Furthermore, anatase TiO2 nanoparticles(TiO2-NPs) showed superior photocatalytic performance compared to rutile TiO2-NPs.