Issue 18, 2021

Synthesis and applications of WO3 nanosheets: the importance of phase, stoichiometry, and aspect ratio

Abstract

Tungsten trioxide (WO3) is an abundant, versatile oxide that is widely explored for catalysis, sensing, electrochromic devices, and numerous other applications. The exploitation of WO3 in nanosheet form provides potential advantages in many of these fields because the 2D structures have high surface area and preferentially exposed facets. Relative to bulk WO3, nanosheets expose more active sites for surface-sensitive sensing/catalytic reactions, and improve reaction kinetics in cases where ionic diffusion is a limiting factor (e.g. electrochromic or charge storage). Synthesis of high aspect ratio WO3 nanosheets, however, is more challenging than other 2D materials because bulk WO3 is not an intrinsically layered material, making the widely-studied sonication-based exfoliation methods used for other 2D materials not well-suited to WO3. WO3 is also highly complex in terms of how the synthesis method affects the properties of the final material. Depending on the route used and subsequent post-synthesis treatments, a wide variety of different morphologies, phases, exposed facets, and defect structures are created, all of which must be carefully considered for the chosen application. In this review, the recent developments in WO3 nanosheet synthesis and their impact on performance in various applications are summarized and critically analyzed.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis and applications of WO3 nanosheets: the importance of phase, stoichiometry, and aspect ratio

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
23 may 2021
Accepted
05 avq 2021
First published
05 avq 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2021,3, 5166-5182

Synthesis and applications of WO3 nanosheets: the importance of phase, stoichiometry, and aspect ratio

T. G. Novak, J. Kim, P. A. DeSario and S. Jeon, Nanoscale Adv., 2021, 3, 5166 DOI: 10.1039/D1NA00384D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements