Preparation Of MoO₃ Based Nanomaterials By Electrospinning Technique As Visible Light Catalysts

Characteristic of its layered structure properties, MoO3 possesses various physical and chemical properties and its numerous applications in various fields have been found. The n-type semiconductor MoO3 has a band gap of 3.02V and could be active in the visible region. However, the rapid electron-hole pair recombination makes the catalysts low activity in visible light. Therefore, the effective improving the light absorption becomes one of the most important subjects for developing the future generation photocatalysts.Considering that this particular physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials, so, in the present work, we prepared MoO3 material by an electrospinning technique as a visible light active catalyst, In order to improve the photocatalytic activity of the MoO3, the V5+ and W6+ were incorporated into MoO3 crystal lattice to modify the properties of MoO3 and extend its light absorption in visible region. Based on this research, the influences of the dopts and the thermal treatment temperature on the structure and morphology of the synthesized samples was discussed. The details and results of the studing as following:(1) PVP/(NH4)eMo7O24-4H2O nanofibers was fabricated by electrospinning technique and then the electrospun precursors were calcined at different temperatures. In order to study the growth process of the crystal, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were used to characterize the samples, respectively. Importantly, the visible-light photocatalytic activity of samples was evaluated by employing methylene blue (MB) as a probe and measured by UV-Vis-NIR/DR. The results suggest that MoO3 nanoplatelets are obtained at 500℃and the best photocatalytic activity is achieved when using MoO3 nanoplatelets as a catalyst.(2) In order to improve the photocatalytic activity of the MoO3, the V5+ and W6+ were incorporated into MoO3 crystal lattice using the NH4VO3 and N5H37W6O24·H2O as the materials. XPS, FT-IR, XRD and SEM were employed to study the influences of the dopts and the thermal treatment temperature on the structure and morphology of the synthesized samples, nanoplates are obtained at 500℃. Importantly, the visible-light photocatalytic activity of samples was evaluated by employing methylene blue (MB) as a probe and measured by UV-Vis-NIR/DR. The results showed that the structure of samples does not change after doping, but the calcination temperature has a significant impact on the structure and morphology of nanoplates forming. And the doped samples appear higher decolorization efficiency than undoped samples and Mo0.97V0.03O3-δnanoplatelets calcined at 500℃presents the best activity.