Fabrication of nanoreactors based on polyoxoperoxometalates and enhancement of their catalytic activity

The nanoreactors were fabricated by reacting amphiphilic quaternary ammoniums and polyoxoperoxometalates Kn[PW12−xTixO40−x(O2)x] (x = 1, 2 and 3; n = 5, 7 and 9) (K5[PW11TiO39(O2)], K7[PW10Ti2O38(O2)2] and K9[PW9Ti3O37(O2)3]). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the resulting samples. This kind of nanocatalysts could promote NH4SCN’ degradation into simple inorganic compounds such as SO42−, HCO3− and NO3− only using oxygen as an oxidant under room conditions.