In-situ fabrication of metal oxide nanocaps based on biphasic reactions with surface nanodroplets

Zixiang Wei; Tulsi Satyavir Dabodiya; Jian Chen; Qiuyun Lu; Jiasheng Qian; Jia Meng; Hongbo Zeng; Hui Qian; Xuehua Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.093

In-situ fabrication of metal oxide nanocaps based on biphasic reactions with surface nanodroplets

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Feb 15;608(Pt 3):2235-2245. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.093. Epub 2021 Oct 28.

Authors

Zixiang Wei¹, Tulsi Satyavir Dabodiya², Jian Chen³, Qiuyun Lu⁴, Jiasheng Qian⁴, Jia Meng⁴, Hongbo Zeng⁴, Hui Qian³, Xuehua Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada. Electronic address: zwei3@ualberta.ca.
² Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada; Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Madanjeet School of Green Energy Technologies, Pondicherry University (A Central University), Dr. R. Vankataraman Nagar, Kalapet, Puducherry 605014, India.
³ Nanotechnology Research Center, National Research Council Canada, Edmonton, AB T6G 2M9, Canada.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada; Physics of Fluids Group, Max Planck Center Twente for Complex Fluid Dynamics, JM Burgers Center for Fluid Dynamics, Mesa+, Department of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, 7522 NB, the Netherlands.

PMID: 34750004
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.093

Abstract

Hypothesis: Surface-bound nanomaterials are widely used in clean energy techniques from solar-driven evaporation in desalination to hydrogen production by photocatalytic electrolysis. Reactive surface nanodroplets may potentially streamline the process of fabrication of a range of surface-bound nanomaterials invoking biphasic reactions at interfaces.

Experiments: In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of reactive surface nanodroplets for in situ synthesis and anchoring of nanocaps of metal oxides with tailored porous structures.

Findings: Spatial arrangement and surface coverage of nanocaps are predetermined during the formation of nanodroplets, while the crystalline structures of metal oxides can be controlled by thermal treatment of organometallic nanodroplets produced from the biphasic reactions. Notably, tuning the ratio of reactive and nonreactive components in surface nanodroplets enables the formation of porous nanocaps that can double photocatalytic efficiency in the degradation of organic contaminants in water, compared to smooth nanocaps. In total, we demonstrate in situ fabrication of four types of metal oxides in the shape of nanocaps. Our work shows that reactive surface nanodroplets may open the door to a general, fast and tuneable route for preparing surface-bound materials. This fabrication approach may develop new nanomaterials needed for photocatalytic reactions, wastewater treatment, optical focusing, solar energy conversion and other clean energy techniques.

Keywords: Metal oxide; Nanodroplets; Photodegradation; Porous materials.