Lou Shi Nee, Yap Nicholas, Scott Jason, Amal Rose, Ng Yun Hau
Particles and Catalysis Research Group, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2014 Dec 11;4:7428. doi: 10.1038/srep07428.
Nanocrystalline molybdenum oxide (α-MoO3) thin films with iso-oriented crystalline layers were synthesised by the anodisation of Mo foils. Upon band-gap excitation using light illumination, α-MoO3 generates excited electrons for reductive reactions and stores some of the excited electrons in its layered crystalline structure via alkali cation intercalation. These stored electrons can be subsequently discharged from α-MoO3 to allow reductive reactions to continue to occur under non-illuminated conditions. The modulation of water concentrations in the organic/aqueous anodisation electrolytes readily produces α-MoO3 crystals with high degree of (kk0) crystallographic orientation. Moreover, these (kk0)-oriented MoO3 crystals exhibit well-developed {hk0} and {0k0} crystal facets. In this paper, we show the benefits of producing α-MoO3 thin films with defined crystal facets and an iso-oriented layered structure for in situ storing of excited charges. α-MoO3 crystals with dominant (kk0) planes can achieve fast charging and a strong balance between charge release for immediate exploitation under illuminated conditions and charge storage for subsequent utilisation in dark. In comparison, α-MoO3 crystals with dominant (0k0) planes show a preference for excited charge storage.
通过对钼箔进行阳极氧化，合成了具有等取向晶体层的纳米晶氧化钼（α-MoO3）薄膜。在光照进行带隙激发时，α-MoO3会产生用于还原反应的激发电子，并通过碱金属阳离子插层将部分激发电子存储在其层状晶体结构中。这些存储的电子随后可以从α-MoO3中释放出来，使还原反应在非光照条件下继续发生。有机/水性阳极氧化电解质中水浓度的调节能够轻松制备出具有高度（kk0）晶体取向的α-MoO3晶体。此外，这些（kk0）取向的MoO3晶体具有发育良好的{hk0}和{0k0}晶面。在本文中，我们展示了制备具有特定晶面和等取向层状结构的α-MoO3薄膜用于原位存储激发电荷的优势。具有主导（kk0）平面的α-MoO3晶体能够实现快速充电，并在光照条件下立即用于电荷释放和黑暗中后续利用的电荷存储之间达到强大的平衡。相比之下，具有主导（0k0）平面的α-MoO3晶体则更倾向于存储激发电荷。
