Controlled fabrication of α-GaOOH with a novel needle-like submicron tubular structure and its enhanced photocatalytic performance

Abstract

Orthorhombic gallium oxide hydroxide (α-GaOOH) with a novel needle-like submicron tubular structure has been firstly fabricated by an organometallic reactant-assisted hydrothermal route. A possible fabrication process indicates that the concentration of OH− ions plays an important role in the formation of submicron tube. Moreover, other four kinds of shape-controllable α-GaOOH particles of nano-, submicron- and micro-size have also been successfully synthesized by changing the pH values of solvent. The photoluminescence (PL) performance demonstrates that there are a plenty of intrinsic defects in α-GaOOH. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity of α-GaOOH with different morphologies was evaluated by degrading methylene blue (MB) aqueous solution. The efficiency of α-GaOOH with a novel tubular structure improves much more than other catalysts. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the effective inhibition of photo-generated electron–hole pair’s recombination resulted from intrinsic defects.