Synergistic impacts of novel tantalum doping in BiVO4 for effective photocatalytic applications, antimicrobial activity, and antioxidant aspect

[Display omitted] •Ta-doped BiVO4 nanostructures were synthesized by an environmentally friendly coprecipitation method of synthesis.•The bandgap of Ta-doped BiVO4 was tuned from 2.7 to 1.98 eV, so the pollutants removal rate increased.•Ta4%-BiVO4 showed 86 % efficient degradation of MB dye. This paper reports the production of pure and Ta-doped (1 %, 2 %, 3 %, and 4 %) BiVO4 nanoparticles (NPs) for MB dye degradation. UV–Vis, FTIR, SEM, PL, and XRD techniques were used to analyze the samples. Photocatalysts (BiVO4, Ta-doped BiVO4) NPs have been used to study the photocatalytic activity of these materials for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) in response to visible light. The band gap reduction from 2.7 to 1.98 eV and the photogeneration of electron-hole pairs have also been demonstrated by UV–visible and PL spectroscopy. According to FTIR spectroscopy analysis, Bismuth, Tantalum, Vanadium, Oxygen, and Carbon are all present in the synthesized material. As the dopant concentration rises, the XRD data show that the crystallite size decreases. The crystallite size of the optimal (4 % Ta-doped BiVO4) is 23 nm, whereas the crystallite size of the 2 % Ta-doped BiVO4 is 39 nm. The SEM image shows that particle size reduces when dopant concentration rises. In comparison to previous synthesized materials, the 4 % Ta-doped BiVO4 NPs have a smaller band gap, crystalline size, and recombination rate. Therefore, using the co-precipitation process, 4 % Ta-doped BiVO4 NPs degrade the MB dye (86 %) in 120 min, making them an ideal material. The findings of this study will be applied to wastewater treatment.