Assembly of thiacalix[4]arene-supported high-nuclearity Cd24 cluster with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Cheng Shi; Min Zhang; Xinxin Hang; Yanfeng Bi; Liangliang Huang; Kun Zhou; Zhenhe Xu; Zhiping Zheng

doi:10.1039/C8NR03474E

Assembly of thiacalix[4]arene-supported high-nuclearity Cd₂₄ cluster with enhanced photocatalytic activity†

Cheng Shi,‡^a Min Zhang,‡^a Xinxin Hang,^a Yanfeng Bi,

*^a Liangliang Huang,^a Kun Zhou,

^a Zhenhe Xu

*^b and Zhiping Zheng*^ac

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun 113001, P. R. China
E-mail: biyanfeng@lnpu.edu.cn

^b The Key Laboratory of Inorganic Molecule-Based Chemistry of Liaoning Province, College of Applied Chemistry, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang 110142, P. R. China
E-mail: xuzh@syuct.edu.cn

^c University of Arizona, Department of Chemistry, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
E-mail: zhiping@email.arizona.edu

Abstract

A high-nuclearity nanoscale Cd₂₄ cluster has been hydrothermally synthesized by assembly of Cd₄-TC4A (H₄TC4A = p-tert-butylthiacalix[4]arene) second building units (SBUs) and in situ generated peroxy(mono)phosphate PO₅³⁻ groups and peroxyphenoxide groups of TC4A. The cluster was structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray diffractions. Photocatalytic studies revealed that the highest nuclearity Cd,S-co-rich Cd₂₄ cluster exhibits enhanced photocatalytic water splitting activities compared to the sandwich Cd₄(TC4A)₂ (Cd₄) cluster under the same conditions in the absence of a co-catalyst. The nanostructure of Cd₂₄ incorporated both peroxyphosphate and peroxyphenoxide groups, which increased the metal coordination numbers to give more labile Cd–O/S bonds and is believed to be the key feature that enables the significant photocatalytic water splitting activities.

This article is part of the themed collection: 2018 Nanoscale HOT Article Collection

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C8NR03474E
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 27 Apr. 2018
Accepted: 10 Jūl. 2018
First published: 13 Jūl. 2018

Download Citation

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 14448-14454

Permissions

Request permissions

Assembly of thiacalix[4]arene-supported high-nuclearity Cd₂₄ cluster with enhanced photocatalytic activity

C. Shi, M. Zhang, X. Hang, Y. Bi, L. Huang, K. Zhou, Z. Xu and Z. Zheng, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 14448 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR03474E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Nanoscale