Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of YbVO4 nanostructure and YbVO4/CuWO4 nanocomposites for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes under visible light.

YbVO4 nanostructure and YbVO4/CuWO4 nanocomposites were successfully synthesized using sonochemical method, for the first time. In this disquisition, we tried to compare various parameters and reaction conditions on size, morphology, and uniformity of as-obtained samples. To reach optimum condition, some parameters including time, power, temperature, and solvent were investigated. The structural, morphological, optical, and magnetic properties of as-obtained products were characterized by some techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, EDS, SEM, TEM, UV-Vis, and VSM. Furthermore, due to occurrence of red shift in nonanocomposite, during the coupling of CuWO4 into YbVO4, photocatalytic and optical properties of final products were improved which lead to improve photo-destruction efficiency for methylene blue from 65% to 100%, during 120 min irradiation. The effect of the ultrasonic radiation on the photocatalytic behavior of YbVO4/CuWO4 shows that methylene blue pollutant destruction was about 100% with ultrasonic wave and 61% in the absence of ultrasonic radiation.