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Abstract: To make better use of solar light, a new Bi2WO6/Cu1.8Se photocatalyst active to visible and near‐infrared light has been synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The composites were characterized by X‐ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV‐vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and photoluminescene (PL). The photocatalytic activities of Bi2WO6/Cu1.8Se are evaluated by degrading Congo red solution and hydrogen generation from water. It was found that the molar percentage of Cu1.8Se had great effects on the morphology and photocatalytic property of the Bi2WO6/Cu1.8Se heterojunctions, and the composite with suitable molar amount of Cu1.8Se exhibits much enhanced photocatalytic activity for Congo red degradation under visible and near‐infrared light irradiation and for hydrogen generation under visible light compared to Bi2WO6. The significant improvement photocatalytic activity of the composite could be attributed to its good light absorption, suitable band gap structure, and effective separation of photogenerated electron‐hole pairs of Bi2WO6/Cu1.8Se heterojunction. This work presents an efficient multifunction photocatalyst owning the activity both for water splitting under visible light and for organic contaminants decomposition under visible‐near‐infrared light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bi1- xSm xFe1- yMn yO3 ( BSFMO, x = 0.0, 0.05; y = 0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25) nanoparticles were synthesized by using double solvent sol-gel method. Photocatalytic activity was investigated under UV and visible-light illumination. The structural, morphological, and optical properties were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy respectively. The crystallite size of BiFeO3 ( BFO) decreases from (57.3-17.2 nm) with the increase in Sm and Mn-doping concentration. The surface morphology shows that the pure and Sm-doped BFO nanoparticles are irregular in shape but changes to spherical shape after Mn-doping up to 25%. The band-gap engineering of BFO nanoparticles is achieved by co-doping of Sm and Mn. The band-gap of BFO could be tuned successfully from 2.08-1.45 eV, which may be due to the distortion induced in Fe-O octahedron and the rearrangement of molecular orbitals. These results give rise to enhanced photocatalytic activity by degradation of organic dyes ( MB, CR, and MV) under the visible-light illumination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]