A novel 3D inorganic heteropoly blue as visible light responsive photocatalyst

A new 3D extended heteropoly blue Ba4[SiWV4WVI8O40]·H2O (1) composed of twelve-coordinated α-Keggin anions [SiWV4WVI8O40]8− and eight-coordinated Ba sites {BaO8} has been hydrothermally synthesized and fully characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, XPS, single crystal X-ray and X-ray powder (XRPD) diffraction. 1 represents the first inorganic 3D framework constructed from four-electron reduced α-Keggin anions linked by alkaline earth metals. The photocatalytic activity of 1 has been evaluated for rhodamine B (RhB) degradation. 1 exhibits excellent catalytic activity for the degradation of RhB in the presence of H2O2and the involvement of visible light makes a more complete degradation. The results of the current study suggest that multi-electron reduced polyoxometalates can catalyze efficient degradation of an organic dye with H2O2.