Facile synthesis of WO3 nanocuboids from tungsten trioxide powder and hydrogen peroxide

Abstract Considerable efforts have been made to tailor the crystalline structure and morphology of tungsten oxide. The activity of tungsten oxide was not only associated with the geometrical structure of the catalysts but also determined by the active surface. In this work, WO 3 nanocuboids were fabricated through hydrothermal treatment of commercial WO 3 with the aid of H 2 O 2 . It was found that WO 3 ·0.33H 2 O nanocuboids were formed at the initial stage and vanished with high temperature; while WO 3 nanocuboids were produced at 240 °C. Experiments revealed that WO 3 nanocuboids possessed much more amounts of coordinative unsaturated W sites than the WO 3 ·0.33H 2 O nanocuboids. Due to the unsaturated coordination environment, the WO 3 nanocuboids show a higher photocatalytic activity in the methylene blue degradation.