Recent advances in wide solar spectrum active W18O49-based photocatalysts for energy and environmental applications

ABSTRACT Developing a facile and proficient strategy for photocatalysis using abundant solar light will result in a clean and renewable process for solving energy and environmental pollution issues. Semiconductor (SC)-based transition metal oxides are used widely, especially, oxygen-deficient tungsten oxide (W18O49) is expected to play an important role in photocatalytic applications because of its abundance, low cost, nontoxicity, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) response, chemical stability, and efficient charge transfer nature. This current review highlights the significance of different modifications in morphological, structural, SC coupling strategies and their influence on photocatalytic applications such as; H2 evaluation, CO2 reduction, and degradation of organics/heavy metal ion treatments. Further, the charge carrier pathways in different heterojunction mechanisms and their role on the photocatalytic activity also discussed in detail. This review highlights new directions and future advancements for developing highly efficient wide-spectrum active W18O49-based SC photocatalysts. Graphical abstract This review highlighted the oxygen defect rich, LSPR, wide-light absorption of W18O49 and W18O49 modified catalysts, which includes various modification techniques: structural, electronic and vacancy engineering techniques, and also different heterojunction mechanisms for energy and environmental applications of photocatalytic water splitting, CO2 photoreduction and wastewater remediation