Niobium Oxide for Microplastics Degradation—the Effect of Crystal Structure and Morphology

Rehman, Atta Ur; Han, Kang Ding; Ali, Muhammad Umair; He, Yanling; Sergeev, Aleksandr A.; Yuan, Zhengtian; Dong, Chunyang; Gao, Xin; Not, Christelle A.; Ng, Alan Man Ching; Wong, Kam Sing; Guo, Zheng Xiao; Lončarić, Ivor; Popović, Jasminka; Djurišić, Aleksandra B. (2025) Niobium Oxide for Microplastics Degradation—the Effect of Crystal Structure and Morphology. Small Structures, 6 (9). ISSN 2688-4062

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Abstract

Microplastic (MP) pollution is ubiquitous in the environment and there is asignificant need for the development of photocatalysts for environmentalremediation of microplastic pollution. Herein, the effect of the structure andmorphology of Nb2 O 5 nanostructures on their photocatalytic activity for MPdegradation is investigated. Nanostructures with a high fraction of pseudo-hexagonal TT-Nb 2O 5 phase are shown to effectively degrade pure polyethylene,polypropylene, and polyester, as well as MP samples collected from the envi-ronment. Efficient photocatalytic degradation of the microplastics is attributed tothe unique structure and morphology (TT-Nb 2 O5 nanoparticles on monoclinicNb2 O 5 rods), which facilitates charge separation and consequently photocatalyticactivity. The Nb2 O 5 nanostructures with optimal composition and morphologylead to efficient degradation of not only pure plastic particles with differentcompositions (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester) in up to 64 h, butalso complete degradation of environmental microplastics in 56 h.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	microplastic; niobium oxide
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Chemistry
Divisions:	Division of Materials Physics Theoretical Physics Division
Depositing User:	Ana Zečević
Date Deposited:	08 Apr 2026 08:27
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/11608
DOI:	10.1002/sstr.202500124

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