BiVO 4 crystals synthesized by an ultrasonic-assisted method (Sono-BiVO 4 )s howed improved efficiency as ah eterogeneous photocatalyst under visible-light irradiation. Sono-BiVO 4 was successfully used for the CÀCbond cleavageofalkenestogenerate carbonyl compounds. Styrened erivatives were converted into carbonyl compounds in the presence of Sono-BiVO 4 under highly sustainable conditions requiring only natural sources, that is, molecular oxygen, visible light, and water at room temperature. Additionally,S ono-BiVO 4 could be easily separated from the reactionm ixture andr eused.The growing awareness for sustainable development has created much interesti nt he chemistry community towards finding sustainable methods and sources. [1] In this regard, visible light, an abundant and easily availablee nergy source, has ag reat potentialt owards driving environmentally benign chemical reactions.I nt he last decade, visible-light photocatalysis has flourished with the discoveryo fv arious photocatalysts. [2] However,r ecently homogeneous catalysis, whichr equires the use of organic dyes or metal (such as Ru, Ir,a nd Cu) complexes, has seen significant development. On the other hand, heterogeneousc atalysis remainsl argely underdevelopedd espite the notable advantages of the catalysts, such as stability andr eusability by easy separation from the reactionm ixture, which is an important consideration for industrial manufacturing processes. [3] Metal oxidess uch as TiO 2 ,Z nO, and Nb 2 O 5 are stable, inexpensive,a nd can be easily filtered from the mixture. [3a, 4] However,b ecause of their wide bandgap( large energy difference between the valancea nd conduction bands), these oxides can only function as efficient photocatalysts under UV irradiation and show an arrow substrate scopeu nder visible-light irradiation( Figure 1). [5] Given its narrower bandgap energy,b ismuth vanadate (BiVO 4 )s hows ag reat potentialf or use as a heterogeneous photocatalystt hat can be easily activated using visible-light wavelength ( % 500 nm). [6, 7] Surprisingly, BiVO 4 has rarely been used as ap hotocatalyst in organic transformations. [8] Herein, we prepared BiVO 4 crystalst oi mprove its efficiency towards organic transformations under visible-light irradiation.Ap recursor solutionc ontaining am ixture of Bi(NO 3 ) 3 ·5 H 2 O (0.2 m)a nd VCl 3 (0.2 m)w as prepared and ultrasonicated for 1h under ambient conditions (Figure 2a), resultingi na ne fficient preparation of BiVO 4 powders. The as-prepared BiVO 4 powder was annealed at 500 8Cf or 3hin air to yield crystallized BiVO 4 (denoted as Sono-BiVO 4 crystals). The acquireds canning (SEM) and transmission electronm icroscopy (TEM, inset) images confirmed the presence of highlyu niform BiVO 4 cubes with an average edge length of 426 AE 104 nm (Figures 2b). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed to obtain structural information aboutS ono-BiVO 4 and the acquired diffractogram is presented in Figure 2c.The diffraction peaks of the Sono-BiVO 4 crystalsc ould be indexed to the mo...

The ultrasonic‐assisted synthesis method provides a fast, simple, and large‐scale route for synthesizing desired materials under ambient conditions. In this work, we report on the facile preparation of ZnO‐ZnS core‐shell nanorods on a fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate. The core‐shell nanorods were synthesized by sequential nanoscale reactions involving the preparation of ZnO nanorods and conversion of the ZnO surface into a ZnS shell on the FTO substrate, using an in situ sonochemical method. The ZnO‐ZnS core‐shell nanorods showed improved photocurrents compared with ZnO nanorods for the water oxidation reaction. During the water oxidation reaction, the ZnS shell passivates the surface‐defects of the ZnO, which results in enhanced charge separation in the ZnO nanorods and higher performance.

The simple and fast ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of high-performance, low-interfacial-resistance Bi2O3/Bi2S3 composite semiconductors is demonstrated.

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