Writers: Raissa Mendes Silva and Diego Augusto Batista Barbosa and Caritas de Jesus Silva Mendonça and José Renato de Oliveira Lima and Fernando Carvalho Silva and Elson Longo and Adeilton Pereira Maciel and Carlos William de Araujo Paschoal and Marcio Aurélio Pinheiro Almeida
Keywords: Bi2WO6; Surfactants; Photodegradation
Abstract: The cleaning of water contaminated with organic dyes is a crucial problem nowadays. The search for good catalysts is intense, and bismuth tungstates have attracted a lot of attention because of their catalytic properties which are related to their crystal structure and morphology. In this study, we show that Bi2WO6 (BWO) crystals synthesized by the surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method create a different morphology than non-assisted crystals. With the assistance of the PVP surfactant, even the BWO crystalline structure could change, crystallizing into a high-symmetry metastable phase. These changes in morphology imply a decrease in BWO catalytic activity, which shows that insightful control of BWO synthesis is necessary to improve the BWO properties.
