R. Adhikari, G. Gyawali, Tae-Ho Kim
Sep 1, 2014
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0
Influential Citations
18
Citations
Journal
Journal of environmental chemical engineering
Abstract
Abstract In this paper, we report a facile microwave hydrothermal synthesis of WO 3 hierarchical structure in presence of disodium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as a complexing agent and its photoactivity for the degradation of rhodamine B (Rh B) under simulated solar light irradiation. The synthesized WO 3 samples were structurally, morphologically and optically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis. The result revealed that the addition of EDTA leads to the controlled aggregation of WO 3 nanoparticles having high crystallinity with monoclinic structure and creates oxygen vacancy in the WO 3 lattice. Moreover, at high concentration of EDTA, cauliflower like hierarchical structure was formed when the optimum concentration of EDTA reaches to 0.5 mol% at pH 6 and exhibited best photoactivity for the Rh B degradation. These results indicate that the WO 3 hierarchical structures with oxygen vacancies are potential materials for effective mineralization of Rh B, one of the hazardous pollutants.