Hydrothermal synthesis of Y3NbO7 nanowires for the photocatalytic degradation of omeprazole sodium

Novel Y3NbO7 nanowires were successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method using Y(NO3)(3)center dot 6H(2)O and Nb2O5 as raw materials. X-ray power diffraction (XRD), High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis-DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) techniques were employed to determine the structure, morphology, specific surface area and optical properties of the as-prepared samples. Photocatalytic examination of the samples was carried out using aqueous solution of omeprazole sodium under visible light irradiation. The effects of initial omeprazole sodium concentration and catalyst amount on the photocatalytic degradation were also investigated. Detailed characterization demonstrated that Y3NbO7 nanowires have cubic fluorite crystal structure with a diameter of about 20 nm and a length up to several micrometers. Photocatalytic activity tests revealed that omeprazole sodium photocatalytic reactions followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and Y3NbO7 nanowires exhibited greater photocatalytic activity than its bulk counterparts. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.