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Controllable synthesis of WO3/Co1-δWO4 composite nanopowders for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB)

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Abstract

Systematical design and controllable synthesis of nanometer heterogeneous structure have attracted much attention in the photocatalytic field. The tungsten oxide/cobalt tungstate (WO3/Co1-δWO4) nanoparticles with heterogeneous interface were synthesized by co-precipitation process. The XRD pattern shows shifts of diffraction peaks of CoWO4 to lower angle side, implying the deficient of Co2+ in the lattice. The internal field across the heterogeneous structure transfers the photon-generated electrons from the conduction band of WO3 to that of Co1-δWO4. The enhancement of the electron density greatly improves the photoluminescence emission intensity at a magnitude of around 2 × 106 in comparison with that of pure WO3 or CoWO4. The photocatalytic efficiency was inspected by exposing the methylene blue (MB) mixing with 1% WO3/Co1-δWO4 nanopowders to the visible light for degradation. The main optical absorption band of MB at 664 nm decays from 2.35 to 0.04 cm−1 after photo-degradation for 3.5 h, suggesting excellent photocatalytic performance.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract of No. 11774276 and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2022YFG0265).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Engineering, Luzhou Vocational and Technical College, Luzhou, 646000, Sichuan, China

    Guolong Tan, Ashwini Kumar & Poorva Sharma

  2. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Guolong Tan & Debesh D. Mishra

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  1. Guolong Tan
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  2. Debesh D. Mishra
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Correspondence to Guolong Tan.

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Tan, G., Mishra, D.D., Kumar, A. et al. Controllable synthesis of WO3/Co1-δWO4 composite nanopowders for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB). J Nanopart Res 24, 116 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-022-05506-3

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