Surfactant-free hydrothermal synthesis, growth mechanism and photocatalytic properties of PbMoO4 polyhedron microcrystals

In the present paper, PbMoO4 polyhedron microcrystals were prepared via a facile hydrothermal synthetic route in the absence of any surfactant, employing Pb(NO3)2 and Na2MoO4·2H2O as starting materials. The phase and morphology of the product were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), Raman spectrum, FT-IR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Some factors influencing the morphology of the final product have been investigated. Experimental results indicated that appropriate volume of glycerol could effectively regulate the nucleation rate and contribute to the formation of PbMoO4 microcrystals of large size. A possible growth mechanism of the PbMoO4 polyhedron was proposed based on the experimental results. Moreover, the photocatalytic properties of the products were studied.