Degradation of dye on polyoxotungstate nanotube under molecular oxygen

A facile process to prepare polyoxometalate Zn1.5[PW12O40] nanotube is presented. The structure and morphology of this nanotube were characterized using IR, elemental analyses, X-ray powder diffraction, 31P MAS NMR and transmission electron microscopy. This nanotube material has a self-supporting tube structure that can be used as a heterogeneous catalyst for the degradation of safranine T (ST) using molecular oxygen (air) as oxidant and can be easily separated from the aqueous phase, thus enabling it to be used several times.