Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
  • 2 Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1 Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, 441-8580, Japan
  • 3 Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1 Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, 441-8580, Japan
  • 4 School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. zainovia@usm.my
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2022 Aug;29(40):60600-60615.
PMID: 35426025 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-20005-7

Abstract

In this study, nanoporous anodic film was produced by anodization of niobium, Nb in a fluoride ethylene glycol electrolyte. The effect of anodization voltage and electrolyte temperature was studied to find an optimum condition for circular, ordered, and uniform pore formation. The diameter of the pores was found to be larger when the applied voltage was increased from 20 to 80 V. The as-anodized porous film was also observed to comprise of nanocrystallites which formed due to high field-induced crystallization. The nanocrystallites grew into orthorhombic Nb2O5 after post-annealing treatment. The Cr(VI) photoreduction property of both the as-anodized and annealed Nb2O5 samples obtained using an optimized condition (anodization voltage: 60 V, electrolyte temperature: 70 °C) was compared. Interestingly, the as-anodized Nb2O5 film was found to display better photoreduction of Cr(VI) than annealed Nb2O5. However, in terms of stability, the annealed Nb2O5 presented high photocatalytic efficiency for each cycle whereas the as-anodized Nb2O5 showed degradation in photocatalytic performance when used continually.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.