Niobium Oxide for Microplastics Degradation—the Effect of Crystal Structure and Morphology

Microplastic (MP) pollution is ubiquitous in the environment and there is a significant need for the development of photocatalysts for environmental remediation of microplastic pollution. Herein, the effect of the structure and morphology of Nb 2 O 5 nanostructures on their photocatalytic activity for MP degradation is investigated. Nanostructures with a high fraction of pseudohexagonal TT‐Nb 2 O 5 phase are shown to effectively degrade pure polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester, as well as MP samples collected from the environment. Efficient photocatalytic degradation of the microplastics is attributed to the unique structure and morphology (TT‐Nb 2 O 5 nanoparticles on monoclinic Nb 2 O 5 rods), which facilitates charge separation and consequently photocatalytic activity. The Nb 2 O 5 nanostructures with optimal composition and morphology lead to efficient degradation of not only pure plastic particles with different compositions (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester) in up to 64 h, but also complete degradation of environmental microplastics in 56 h.

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Publication Details

Journal
Small Structures
Published
2025-05-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/sstr.202500124
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.73

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article

Niobium Oxide for Microplastics Degradation—the Effect of Crystal Structure and Morphology

Atta Ur Rehman, Muhammad Umair Ali, Zhengtian Yuan, Christelle Not et al.
2 citations
Small Structures
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
0.73
article

Niobium Oxide for Microplastics Degradation—the Effect of Crystal Structure and Morphology

Atta Ur Rehman, Muhammad Umair Ali, Zhengtian Yuan, Christelle Not, Jasminka Popović, Alan Man Ching Ng, Chunyang Dong, Kam Sing Wong, Zhengxiao Guo, Ivor Lončarić, Aleksandr A. Sergeev, Aleksandra B. Djurišić, Xin Gao, Kun Han, Yanling He
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Microplastic (MP) pollution is ubiquitous in the environment and there is a significant need for the development of photocatalysts for environmental remediation of microplastic pollution. Herein, the effect of the structure and morphology of Nb 2 O 5 nanostructures on their photocatalytic activity for MP degradation is investigated. Nanostructures with a high fraction of pseudohexagonal TT‐Nb 2 O 5 phase are shown to effectively degrade pure polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester, as well as MP samples collected from the environment. Efficient photocatalytic degradation of the microplastics is attributed to the unique structure and morphology (TT‐Nb 2 O 5 nanoparticles on monoclinic Nb 2 O 5 rods), which facilitates charge separation and consequently photocatalytic activity. The Nb 2 O 5 nanostructures with optimal composition and morphology lead to efficient degradation of not only pure plastic particles with different compositions (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester) in up to 64 h, but also complete degradation of environmental microplastics in 56 h.

Small StructuresVol. 6(9)
National University of Singapore (SG), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK), Southern University of Science and Technology (CN), Ruđer Bošković Institute (HR), University of Hong Kong (HK)
Environment and Conservation Fund
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 31%
Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
0.73
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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