Pressure-induced and flaring photocatalytic diversity of ZnO particles hallmarked by finely tuned pathways

Vrankić, Martina; Šarić, Ankica; Nakagawa, Takeshi; Ding, Yang; Despotović, Ines; Kanižaj, Lidija; Ishii, Hirofumi; Hiraoka, Nozomu; Dražič, Goran; Lützenkirchen-Hecht, Dirk; Peter, Robert; Petravić, Mladen (2022) Pressure-induced and flaring photocatalytic diversity of ZnO particles hallmarked by finely tuned pathways. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 894 . ISSN 0925-8388

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Abstract

To optimize the properties of shape-selected ZnO particles for flexible and reliable applications, it is necessary to control their microstructure and morphology. In particular, finely tuned ZnO nano/microstructures of different sizes and shapes should be further chemically manipulated as desired, and the integration of chemical understanding and physical measurement with scientific theory is required. Herein, we delivered a detailed description of the mechanism that mimics the formation of finely tuned spherical ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) at the computational level. We tackled issues that significantly affect the favorable structural motifs of the spherical ZnO NPs grown hydrothermally from ethanolic solution leading to their advancing chemical and physical properties. The excellent photocatalytic activity of the spherical ZnO was addressed by an apparent-rate constant of 9.7(2)x10-2 min-1 efficiently degrading the Rhodamine B solution by ∼99% in 50 min. The apparent-rate constant for spindle-like ZnO nanoparticles is almost six times lower than that of spherical ZnO particles. Comparative results revealed that the diversity of size and shape of ZnO particles distinguishes the wurtzite-to-rocksalt transformation reversibility phenomena by dictating the microstructure-dependent deformation behavior and ultimately leading to different transition-induced elastic strain responses to hydrostatic pressure up to 29 GPa.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	high-pressure XRD; ZnO nanoparticles; photocatalytic activity; apparent-rate constant; microstructure; phase transition
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics > Condensed Matter Physics NATURAL SCIENCES > Chemistry
Divisions:	Division of Materials Physics Division of Physical Chemistry
Depositing User:	Martina Vrankić
Date Deposited:	05 Feb 2024 13:07
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/8455
DOI:	10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.162444

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