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Self‐assembly synthesis of monodisperse BiVO 4 nanosphere via a hybrid strategy for photoelectrochemical water splitting
Author(s) -
Wang Lu,
Su Jinzhan,
Guo Liejin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.202000975
Subject(s) - dispersity , materials science , nanoporous , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , nanoparticle , nanoreactor , green chemistry , chemistry , catalysis , organic chemistry , reaction mechanism , polymer chemistry , engineering
Monodisperse semiconductor sphere holds great potential for a wide variety of application as a basic building block. Herein a binary oxide, BiVO 4 , with highly uniform monodisperse nanosphere of 125 nm diameter was primarily synthesized via a hybrid method with PVP assisted in organic solvent. After investigating the function of PVP and the emergence of esterification in solvent, we proposed a formation mechanism of amorphous BiVO 4 nanosphere, including the precipitation of BiVO 4 clusters in reverse micelles and the self‐assembly aggregation of BiVO 4 clusters to be BiVO 4 nanospheres. The generated water in esterification provides a nanoreactor to precipitate BiVO 4 cluster, in return, the precipitation by using water catalyzes the process of esterification in ethanol with acetic acid. This hybrid reaction of inorganic BiVO 4 precipitate and organic esterification opens a novel avenue to couple nano inorganic chemistry with organic dehydration synthesis, achieving green chemistry for sustainable development. Furthermore, highly efficient nanoporous BiVO 4 photoanodes composed of BiVO 4 nanospheres for water splitting were obtained using a simple drop‐casting method and optimized for their photocurrent density by calcination temperatures. This hybrid reaction strategy could be applied to synthesize other semiconductors with nanosphere toward novel low‐cost structures and devices.