Development of highly efficient visible light responsive photocatalysts based on tungsten oxide

Abstract

Tungsten oxide loaded with nanoparticulate platinum (Pt-WO₃) is demonstrated to exhibit high activity for the decomposition of organic compounds both in liquid and gas phases ; the activity was almost comparable to that of titanium oxides (TiO₂) under UV light irradiation, and much higher than that of nitrogen-doped TiO₂ under visible irradiation. The high activity of Pt-WO₃ was found to be due to the promotion of multielectron reduction of O₂ to hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) on the Pt cocatalyst