In this work, novel CeO 2 /CoWO 4 heterostructured nanocomposites (NCs) were synthesized via a hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy were carried out to determine the crystal structure, deep morphology, optical properties, and charge separation of the obtained photocatalysts (PCs), respectively. In comparison to the pristine CoWO 4 , the CeO 2 and CeO 2 /CoWO 4 PCs demonstrated enhanced activity of methylene blue (MB) aqueous dye photodegradation under visible-light exposure. The photodegradation efficiency of the as-prepared CeO 2 /CoWO 4 photocatalyst showed the premier decomposition ratio (92.5%) of MB dye in 105 min among all samples, which was notably 1.8-fold and 2.2-fold that of the pristine CeO 2 (43%) and CoWO 4 (60%), respectively. Likewise, the CeO 2 / CoWO 4 PCs retained satisfactory photo-reactivity even after five sequential recycling runs, indicating their excellent photocatalytic stability and robustness. Hence the succeeding superior PCs preferred further efficient charge (e À -h + ) separation, excellent visible-light absorption, and worthy interfacial energy transfer leads between CoWO 4 and CeO 2 nanoparticles. Additionally, a plausible mechanism for the photodegradation was proposed. The synergistic antibacterial properties of the CeO 2 /CoWO 4 NCs were investigated by a gel diffusion method. Therefore, this work offers a novel avenue for the preparation of stable and efficient visible-light-driven PCs for environmental remediation.
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