Construction of silver tungstate multilevel sphere clusters by controlling the energy distribution on the crystal surface

Abstract

Silver tungstate (Ag₂WO₄) multilevel sphere clusters were synthesized for the first time by a dynamic-template route through controlling the energy distribution on the crystal surface. The polymerization reaction of acrylamide monomers as the dynamic-template on the surface of the Ag₂WO₄ crystals occurred, with more polymerization causing more high energy spots to appear on the surface of the Ag₂WO₄ crystals, and the change of energy caused by this affected the formation and growth of the multilevel sphere clusters. The Ag₂WO₄ multilevel sphere clusters were 2.5–2.8 μm in diameter and constituted several second level spheres which were about 0.8 μm in diameter. The XRD patterns indicated that the Ag₂WO₄ products were perfectly matched with the hexagonal-phase Ag₂WO₄ crystal system and the symmetric space type belonged to the P6₃ symmetric system. In addition, the Ag₂WO₄ products had good visible light photocatalytic performance and antimicrobial ability.