Solvent-induced assembly and photocatalytic properties of atomically precise tellurotungstate-templated Ag clusters

Abstract

Atomically precise polyoxometalate (POM)-templated Ag clusters represent an emerging class of materials featuring welldefined structures and tunable functionalities. However, tellurotungstates have never been exploited as anionic templates for constructing high-nuclearity Ag clusters. Herein, we report two structurally new Ag clusters,successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method using tellurotungstates as in-situ-generated templates. Notably, both of the two POM templates, [Te2W12O48] 12-and [Te2W26O92] 20-, originate from the [TeW9O33] 8-ligands under different self-assembly conditions. The structures were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Powder Xray diffraction (PXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD). SCXRD reveals that Ag60 adopts a peanut-shaped core-shell architecture encapsulating a {Te2W12O48} unit, whereas Ag46 features a chairshaped silver ring templated by a dumbbell-shaped {Te2W26O92} chain. Photocatalytic experiments reveal that both clusters possess excellent photocatalytic performance toward H2O2 production.