Facile synthesis of WO3 nanocuboids from tungsten trioxide powder and hydrogen peroxide

Considerable efforts have been made to tailor the crystalline structure and morphology of tungsten oxide. The activity of tungsten oxide was not only associated with the geometrical structure of the catalysts but also determined by the active surface. In this work, WO3 nanocuboids were fabricated through hydrothermal treatment of commercial WO3 with the aid of H2O2. It was found that WO3 center dot 0.33H(2)O nanocuboids were formed at the initial stage and vanished with high temperature; while WO3 nanocuboids were produced at 240 degrees C. Experiments revealed that WO3 nanocuboids possessed much more amounts of coordinative unsaturated W sites than the WO3 center dot 0.33H(2)O nanocuboids. Due to the unsaturated coordination environment, the WO3 nanocuboids show a higher photocatalytic activity in the methylene blue degradation. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.