Cooperative self-construction and enhanced optical absorption of nanoplates-assembled hierarchical Bi2WO6 flowers

Bi2WO6 hierarchical multilayered flower-like assemblies are fabricated on a large scale by a simple hydrothermal method in the presence of polymeric poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate). Such 3D Bi2WO6 assemblies are constructed from orderly arranged 2D layers, which are further composed of a large number of interconnected nanoplates with a mean side length of ca. 50 nm. The bimodal mesopores associated with such hierarchical assembly exhibit peak mesopore size of ca. 4 nm for the voids within a layer, and peak mesopore size of ca. 40 nm corresponding to the interspaces between stacked layers, respectively. The formation process is discussed on the basis of the results of time-dependent experiments, which support a novel ‘coupled cooperative assembly and localized ripening’ formation mechanism. More interestingly, we have noticed that the collective effect related to such hierarchical assembly induces a significantly enhanced optical absorbance in the UV–visible region. This work may shed some light on the design of complex architectures and exploitation of their potential applications.

Graphical abstractBi2WO6 hierarchical multilayered flower-like assemblies are fabricated on a large scale by a simple hydrothermal method in the presence of polymeric poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate).Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide