Hydrothermal synthesis of WO3 nanoparticles: Characterization and sonocatalytic study

Abstract

Present work reports the preparation of WO3 nanoparticles through facile and efficient hydrothermal route. Raman analysis confirms the formation of monoclinic WO3 phase. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis shows that the WO3 samples consists of nano sized particles having uniform distribution and UV–vis-NIR analyses shows absorption in the visible region. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) experiments reveal that WO3 nanoparticles have zeta potential of −12.9 mV and electrophoretic mobility of −6.7 × 10−5 cm2/Vs in water. Value of zeta potential confirms that the sample is moderately stable at room temperature. Also these WO3 nanoparticles showed significant sonocatalytic property in methylene blue (MB) solution. WO3 nanoparticles having a concentration of 1 g/L shows a noteworthy 61.2% of removal efficiency on water containing MB dye concentration of 10 mg/L within 90 min.