A facile microwave solvothermal process to synthesize ZnWO4 nanoparticles

ZnWO4 nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile microwave-assisted solvothermal process. The X-ray diffraction results indicated that the as-synthesized nanoparticles exhibited only wolframite structure ZnWO4 without impurities. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that the particle size of synthesized nanoparticles were around 10 nm. All samples showed a band-gap of 3.8 eV. The photocatalytic activities were evaluated by the decomposition of salicylic acid and Rhodamine B under UV light irradiations. The results showed that the samples prepared by the microwave solvothermal process exhibited higher photocatalytic activities than that prepared by the conventional solvothermal process.