Abstract
Highly crystalline, well-developed potassium titanoniobate (KTiNbO 5 and KTi3NbO9) crystals were successfully grown at temperatures ranging from 700 to 1000 °C by a KCl flux cooling method. Colourless and transparent KTiNbO5 crystals with a smallest average size of 750 nm were grown at a relatively low temperature of 700 °C. The sizes of grown crystals were observed to greatly dependent on the holding temperature and solute concentration. HRTEM observations indicated that the flux-grown KTiNbO5 crystals were of high quality. The band gap energies of the fabricated KTiNbO5 and KTi3NbO9 crystals, as estimated from their absorption edges in UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, were approximately 3.54 and 3.35 eV, respectively. Furthermore, these crystals exhibited good photocatalytic activities under UV light irradiation. The photodecomposition of TCE gas occurred via a photocatalytic process under UV light irradiation. This study demonstrates that KCl flux cooling is an environmentally friendly and nature-mimetic process for growing high-quality, well-developed, and photocatalytic KTiNbO5 and KTi3NbO9 crystals.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1190-1196 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | CrystEngComm |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2011 Feb 21 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Chemistry(all)
- Materials Science(all)
- Condensed Matter Physics