Fluoride‐mediately solvothermal synthesis and tunable photocatalytic selectivity of urchin‐like ZrO2 hollow microspheres. Issue 5 (18th January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jing, Wenjia; Hou, Baoqiang; Wang, Jinxiao; Zhi, Qiang; Yang, Jianfeng; Wang, Bo
• Is Part Of: Journal of the American Ceramic Society. Volume 105:Issue 5(2022)
• Page Start: 3141
• Page End: 3146
• Publication Date: 2022-01-18
• Subjects: Density Functional Theory -- Photocatalytic -- Solvothermal Synthesis -- Zirconia; Ceramics -- Periodicals; 620.1405
• DOI: 10.1111/jace.18342
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7820

Abstract

Abstract: Photocatalysts often show excellent performances on the basis of their surface state of exposed faces with high reactivity, but unfortunately surfaces of this type are usually concealed into the interior of crystals for their high surface energy. We report here a possibility that for fluorine‐terminated surfaces of monoclinic ZrO2, these higher‐energy surfaces could be retained and exposed. Urchin‐like ZrO2 hollow microspheres (UZHS) composed of nanoribbons with exposed (010) facets are obtained through a fluoride mediately solvothermal method. We prove the stabilization effect of fluorine adsorption on (010) facets by density functional theory calculations. More interestingly, UZHS exhibit tunable photocatalytic selectivity in dye degradation. The fluorinated UZHS exhibit good performances both on decomposing Congo red (CR) and methylene blue, while the surface‐modified UZHS by calcination only favor decomposition of CR.