Ultrasonically and Photonically Simulatable Bi‐Ceria Nanocubes for Enhanced Catalytic Degradation of Aqueous Dyes: A Detailed Study on Optimization, Mechanism and Stability

Abstract Ultrasonically and photonically simulatable heterogeneous Bi substituted ceria nanocubes was synthesized via a modified hydrothermal method with the series of seven different substitution concentration of Bi (1‐11 mol%). The microscopic images showed the formation of regular cubic shaped Bi substituted ceria nanocubes. The results obtained from X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed the substitution of Bi ions in ceria lattice. The optical properties of nanocubes were investigated via UV visible diffuse reflectance spectral characterization and it revealed that the nanocubes were capable of absorbing wider range of photons generated during ultrasonic cavitation effect. The sonocatalytic and photocatalytic performance of as prepared Bi substituted ceria nanocubes were examined by three different acidic/anionic and basic/cationic organic dyes. The effective condition for enhanced Bi substituted ceria nanocubes assisted sonocatalytic degradation of organic dyes was studied by altering the different initial operating parameters. The possible sonocatalytic and photocatalytic degradation reaction mechanism of Bi substituted ceria nanocubes is elucidated. The obtained experimental results show that the Bi substituted ceria nanocubes has good sonocatalytic as well as a photocatalytic ability on the degradation of both basic/cationic and acidic/anionic dyes with higher catalytic stability.