Facile synthesis of WO3 fibers via centrifugal spinning as an efficient UV- and VIS-light-driven photocatalyst

This paper demonstrates, for the first time, synthesis of uniform and crystalline WO3 mesoporous fibers with a diameter ?1 ?m via centrifugal spinning. was achieved by using stable aqueous precursor solution based on ammonium metatungstate (AMT, (NH4)6H2W12O40·xH2O)) polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP, (C6H9NO)n). Annealing at 300 °C 1 h followed an additional annealing 500 6 conducted to obtain fibers. The resulting centrifugally spun possess approx. 1.4–4 times enhancement in photocatalytic activity under UV (k = 0.0205 min?1) VIS 0.0109 light irradiation compared that electrospun commercially available nanoparticles. is due increased specific surface area (SBET 22.3 m2/g) 7.4 nanoparticles 6.4 m2/g). On other hand, optical properties all tested materials (including band gap) were nearly same.