Emergence of Visible-Light Water Oxidation Upon Hexaniobate-Ligand Entrapment of Quantum-Confined Copper-Oxide Cores |
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| Authors: | Dr Chandan Kumar Tiwari Shubasis Roy Tal Tubul-Sterin Mark Baranov Nitai Leffler Mu Li Prof Panchao Yin Dr Alevtina Neyman Prof Ira A Weinstock |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Chemistry and the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105 Israel;2. South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology & State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640 China |
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| Abstract: | The formation of small 1 to 3 nm organic-ligand free metal-oxide nanocrystals (NCs) is essential to utilization of their attractive size-dependent properties in electronic devices and catalysis. We now report that hexaniobate cluster-anions, Nb6O19]8−, can arrest the growth of metal-oxide NCs and stabilize them as water-soluble complexes. This is exemplified by formation of hexaniobate-complexed 2.4-nm monoclinic-phase CuO NCs ( 1 ), whose ca. 350 Cu-atom cores feature quantum-confinement effects that impart an unprecedented ability to catalyze visible-light water oxidation with no added photosensitizers or applied potentials, and at rates exceeding those of hematite NCs. The findings point to polyoxoniobate-ligand entrapment as a potentially general method for harnessing the size-dependent properties of very small semiconductor NCs as the cores of versatile, entirely-inorganic complexes. |
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| Keywords: | Copper Oxide Hexaniobate Anion Photocatalysis Water Oxidation |
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