Hydrothermal topological synthesis and photocatalyst performance of orthorhombic Nb2O5 rectangle nanosheet crystals with dominantly exposed (010) facet

Publication date: 5 March 2017
Source:Materials & Design, Volume 117
Author(s): Puhong Wen, Lili Ai, Taotao Liu, Dengwei Hu, Fangyi Yao
The regular orthorhombic Nb2O5 (O-Nb2O5) rectangle nanosheets dominantly exposed (010) facet are synthesized by a hydrothermal topological reaction with a precursor of K4Nb6O17·4.5H2O (KNbO). The structure and morphology of the samples obtained at different temperatures and pH values of reacting solution are investigated. The results suggest that there are two topological reactions in this process. One is the acid-exchanging reaction transforming into H4Nb6O17·3H2O (HNbO) nanosheets from KNbO rectangle nanosheets, and the other is dehydration reaction transforming into O-Nb2O5 rectangle nanosheets from HNbO nanosheets. And the {010} facets of O-Nb2O5 crystal are transformed from the {010} facets of HNbO crystal in the ingenious topological reaction. The photoelectric performance of the obtained O-Nb2O5 nanosheets is evaluated by decomposing water to H2 under 370nm UV light illumination and measuring the accompanying photocurrent. The photocurrent density is 680nA·cm⁻² generated by splitting water with O-Nb2O5 nanosheets as photocatalyst, and it is 4.3 times of the contrast sample. The result indicates that the (010) facet of O-Nb2O5 is one of the highest photocatalytic active surfaces and shows high photoelectric conversion efficiency. Thus, the O-Nb2O5 nanosheets dominantly exposed (010) facet have potential applications in photocatalyst and photoelectric nanodevices.

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