Unraveling the anomalous nature of the niobium pentoxide

• Autor(a) principal: Gustavo Henrique de Magalhães Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFMG
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/39611; https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-2944-7039
• topic: Niobium pentoxide; Nanomaterials; Crystal structure; Crystalline defects; Photocatalysis; Pentóxido de nióbio; Nanomateriais; Estrutura e defeitos cristalinos; Físico-química; Compostos de nióbio; Óxidos metálicos; Materiais nanoestruturados; Rietveld, Método de; Cristalografia; Raios X; Difração; Microscopia eletrônica; Fotocatálise; Cristais; Defeitos

The niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) figures as one of the most spoken metal oxides in the past few years. The research topics employing niobium pentoxide encompass crucial areas of scientific knowledge, such as engineering, physics, chemistry, and biology. The Nb2O5 proved to have remarkable performance in catalysis, photocatalysis, energy conversion, and electronic devices. These applications stand out because the Nb2O5 presents an odd behavior, with the possibility to obtain several polymorphs with distinct crystalline phases, and it could present defects in its structure due to non-stoichiometric behavior. Combining all niobium pentoxide properties has made it an emergent metal oxide nowadays. The present thesis employed two simples synthetical routes: precursor burnt and Pechini method, as they are straightforward, cheap, and easy to manipulate. The Pechini route produces mesoporous materials due to the polymeric chain. There are also reports in the literature of defects in the niobium pentoxide employing the Pechini method. We synthesized nine different samples. All of them presented distinct behavior, with four crystalline phases. X-ray diffraction allied with Rietveld refinement was performed to understand the crystalline behavior of all obtained phases. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy proved to be a robust technique to understand the crystalline phase and the role of these defects in the structure. These techniques allied with an electronic structure evaluation gave sufficient information to perform the most suitable applications. The Nb2O5 showed its remarkable capability in the adsorption and photodegradation of pollutants and biomass conversion to chemicals with industrial interest. These findings are closely related to defects and the correct crystal structure. Overall, the interest of this research is the investigation of the Nb2O5 crystal structure and evaluating its impact in photocatalytic applications. The results presented are instigating further research on the Nb2O5, bringing the subject of defect engineering for improved performance.