Synthesis of tetragonal prismatic γ-In2Se3 nanostructures with predominantly {110} facets and photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline

Crystals grown in the direction of high-energy facets have reduced surface energy, a small portion of high-energy crystal facets, and high photocatalytic activity. In this work, gamma-In2Se3 nanoparticles with predominantly exposed {110} facets are synthesized hydrothermally in the presence of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). EDTA plays a key role in regulating the exposed {110} facets and by adding 0.04 M of EDTA, tetragonal prismatic gamma-In2Se3 nanoparticles with the {110} facets are produced. Studies of the photocatalytic activity of tetracycline (TC) reveal that the tetragonal prismatic gamma-In2Se3 prepared with 0.04 M EDTA has the optimal activity that is about 1.9 times higher than that of conical gamma-In2Se3 prepared without EDTA. The capture experiments show that h(+) and O-2(center dot-) affect degradation of TC and our results reveal a novel strategy to synthesize gamma-In2Se3 with the optimal morphology and photocatalytic activity.