A facile synthesis of hexagonal WO₃ prepared via microwave-assisted hydrothermal

Full text: Hexagonal tungsten oxide (h -WO₃ ) is a material with interesting applications, which include gas sensor, positive electrode for rechargeable lithium batteries, nuclear waste management among others. Works has shown synthesis methods of the h-WO₃ with much longer time and reagents than the presented method. In this work, it was obtained h-WO₃ via microwave-assisted hydrothermal method in 16 minutes at 150°C from the reagents sodium tungstate ( Na₂WO₄ ) and acid chloride (HCl 6M).The confirmation of hexagonal phase was performed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD).The morphology of sample was investigated by scanning electron microscopy with field emission (MEV/FEG),and showed an interesting morphology of irregular microplates in which one dimension about 5 nm. This morphology should affect the properties of material and consequently their applications. References: [1] H.Uresti, B. Diana, M.D. Sanchez, A. Martinez-de la Cruz, G.S. Sepulveda, T.Martinez,M. Leticia, Characterization and photocatalytic properties of hexagonal and monoclinic WO₃ prepared via microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis, Ceramics International, 40 (2014) 4767-4775. [2] S.Salmaoui, F.Sediria, N.Gharbia, C.Perruchotc, M.Jouini, Hexagonal hydrated tungsten oxide nanomaterials: Hydrothermal synthesis and electrochemical properties, Electrochimica Acta, Volume 108, 1 October 2013, Pages 634-43. (author)