By-product assisted hydrothermal synthesis of InOOH microflower composed of nanosheets

Abstract A novel, by-product assisted phase selective synthesis of InOOH was reported. The InOOH was synthesized using indium nitrate with oxalic acid in a hydrothermal process at 225 °C for 10 h without using any other templates. The nitric acid formed as a by-product played an important role in the formation of InOOH. Controlled experiments showed that in the absence of by-product no InOOH was formed. The influence of various hydrothermal experimental parameters on the formation of InOOH was also investigated in this study. The XRD pattern indicated the formation of well crystallized orthorhombic InOOH and the FE-SEM results confirmed the formation of flower-like morphological InOOH. The synthesized InOOH has indicated excellent photocatalytic activity on the degradation of Methyl Orange (MO) dye under UV light irradiation. A plausible mechanism of InOOH formation has also been proposed based on the experimental observation.