Advances in Polyoxometalates as Electron Mediators for Photocatalytic Dye Degradation

The increasing concerns over the environment and the growing demand for sustainable water treatment technologies have sparked substantial interest in the field of photocatalytic dye removal. Polyoxometalates (POMs), known for their intricate metal-oxygen anion clusters, have received considerable attention due to their versatile structures, compositions, and efficient facilitation of photo-induced electron transfers. This paper provides an overview of the ongoing research progress in the realm of photocatalytic dye degradation utilizing POMs and their derivatives. The details encompass the compositions of catalysts, catalytic efficacy, and light absorption propensities, and the photocatalytic mechanisms inherent to POM-based materials for dye degradation are exhaustively expounded upon. This review not only contributes to a better understanding of the potential of POM-based materials in photocatalytic dye degradation, but also presents the advancements and future prospects in this domain of environmental remediation.

Polyoxometalates for bifunctional applications: Catalytic dye degradation and anticancer activity

Improving the efficiencies of organic compound degradations by catalytic materials is a challenging materials research field. In our research, we successfully synthesized cobalt-based polyoxometalates (CoV-POMs) via a simple crystallization-driven self-assembly method. The incorporation of the newly synthesized CoV-POMs into peroxymonosulphate (PMS), forming a mixture, greatly enhancing the catalytic activation for a complete degradation of dye solution. The positive synergic effect between CoV-POMs and PMS was substantiated by a relatively meager degradation of less than 10% in the system without CoV-POMs, in which CoV-POMs played a vital role to activate PMS towards free radicals generation for dye degradation. Methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB) dyes were completely decolorized under 60 min with the presence of 40 mg/L CoV-POMs and 150 mg/L PMS. The CoV-POMs/PMS system was pH dependance with a lower dye degradation efficiency at elevated pH. The effect of pH was more prominent in RB dye, in which the degradation efficiency dropped drastically from 93.3% to 41.12% with the increase in the solution pH from 7 to 11. The quenching tests suggested that sulfate radicals were the dominant active species involving in the dye degradation reaction. Besides MB and RB dyes, CoV-POMs/PMS system also showed significant activity towards the degradation of phenol red (PR) and methyl orange (MO) dyes. In the biological test, CoV-POMs exhibited non-toxic behavior towards normal cells that reduced safety concern for the large-scale wastewater treatment application. In addition, the testing divulged the anticancer property of CoV-POMs with more than 35 % of A549 lung adenocarcinoma and MDA-MB-231 breast adenocarcinoma were killed with 250 mg/L CoV-POMs. The selective lethality of CoV-POMs towards cancer cells was found to be caused by different extents of cellular apoptosis. In overall, the synthesized bifunctional CoV-POMs manifested superior activities in the examined applications, specifically dye degradation and anticancer.

Organic-inorganic hybrid 1-D double chain heteropolymolybdates constructed from plenary Keggin germanomolybdate anions and hepta-nuclear Cu-RE-pic heterometallic clusters

Two unprecedented organic-inorganic hybrid 1-D double chain germanomolybdates containing hepta-nuclear Cu-RE-pic heterometallic clusters [NH₄]₂[RE(H₂O)₅]₂[Cu(pic)₂]₂[Cu(pic)₂(H₂O)₂]₃[α-GeMo₁₂O₄₀]₂·22H₂O [RE = La³⁺ (1), Ce³⁺ (2), and Hpic = 2-picolinic acid] were successfully obtained by the stepwise self-assembly strategy via the conventional solution method. The most striking structural feature of 1 and 2 is that the two plenary Keggin [α-GeMo₁₂O₄₀]^4- polyoxoanions are joined by an organic-inorganic hybrid hepta-nuclear Cu-RE-pic {[RE(H₂O)₅]₂[Cu(pic)₂(H₂O)₂]₃[Cu(pic)₂]₂}⁶⁺ heterometallic moiety. What is more interesting is that their adjacent structural units are connected together by {Cu(pic)₂} bridges, forming a 1-D extended double chain architecture. Furthermore, the adsorption capacity of 1 toward dyes in aqueous solutions was deeply investigated. It is fascinating that 1 shows a good adsorption capacity toward basic violet 3 (BV 3) in aqueous solutions and the adsorption kinetics conforms to the second-order kinetic model.

A Comprehensive Study on the Dye Adsorption Behavior of Polyoxometalate-Complex Nano-Hybrids Containing Classic β-Octamolybdate and Biimidazole Units

Six new hybrids based on β-[Mo₈O26]4- polyoxometalates, [Ni(H₂biim)₃]₂[β-Mo₈O26]•8DMF(1); (DMA)₂[M(H₂biim)₂(H₂O)₂][β-Mo₈O26]•4DMF (M = Ni (2), Co (3)), DMA = dimethyl-ammonium, H₂biim=2,2'-biimidazole); [M(H₂biim)(DMF)₃]₂[β-Mo₈O26]•2DMF (M = Zn (4), Cu (5)); [(DMA)₂[Cu(DMF)₄][β-Mo₈O26]•2DMF]n (6), have been successfully synthesized and characterized. Compounds 2⁻5 show favorable capacity to adsorb methylene blue (MB) at room temperature, and they can selectively capture MB molecules from binary-mixture solutions of MB/MO (MO = Methyl Orange), or MB/RhB (RhB = Rhodamine B). Compound 3 can uptake up to 521.7 mg g-1 MB cationic dyes rapidly, which perform the maximum adsorption in an hour among the reported materials as far as we know. The compounds are stable and still work very efficiently after three cycles. For compound 3, the preliminary adsorption mechanism studies indicated that the adsorption is an ion exchange process and the adsorption behavior of polyoxometalate-complex can be benefited from additional exchangeable protons in the complex cations.

Ligand-Controlled Assembly of Heteropolyoxomolybdates from Plenary Keggin Germanomolybdates and Cu-Ln Heterometallic Units

By virtue of combining an in-situ assembly process with a stepwise synthesis in conventional aqueous solution, two series of unique organic-inorganic hybrid heteropolyoxomolybdates were constructed from plenary Keggin germanomolybdates and Cu-Ln heterometallic units and fully characterized: [H₂ INA]₂ H₈ [LnCu(INA)₄ (H₂ O)₆ ]₂ [α-GeMo₁₂ O₄₀ ]₃ ⋅52 H₂ O (Ln=La³⁺ (1), Ce³⁺ (2), Pr³⁺ (3), Nd³⁺ (4), Sm³⁺ (5), Eu³⁺ (6); HINA=isonicotinic acid) and (NH₄ )[Cu(PA)₂ ][Cu(PA)₂ Ln(H₂ O)₈ ][α-GeMo₁₂ O₄₀ ]⋅10 H₂ O (Ln=Nd³⁺ (7), Sm³⁺ (8), Eu³⁺ (9); HPA=picolinic acid). The most remarkable structural characteristic of compounds 1-6 was that their molecular units were defined by three discrete plenary Keggin [α-GeMo₁₂ O₄₀ ]^4- polyoxoanions and two organic-inorganic hybrid heterometallic [LnCu(INA)₄ (H₂ O)₆ ]⁺ moieties, whereas compounds 7-9 exhibited a nice-looking 1D chain-like structure that was built from plenary [α-GeMo₁₂ O₄₀ ]^4- polyoxoanions, pendent [Cu(PA)₂ ] complexes, and bridging {[Cu(PA)₂ ][Ln(H₂ O)₈ ]}³⁺ heterometallic groups. Notably, two different pyridine carboxylic acid ligands led to the discrepancy between the two structure types. To the best of our knowledge, compounds 1-9 constitute the first examples of plenary Keggin heterometallic germanomolybdates that include Cu-Ln-organic subunits. Further studies revealed that compounds 3 and 8 exhibited fast adsorption capacity for cationic dyes methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) in water. Moreover, compounds 3 and 8 could quickly and selectively adsorb MB from a mixture of MB/methyl orange (MO) or MB/azophloxine (Apo).

A new 3D POMOF with two channels consisting of Wells–Dawson arsenotungstate and {Cl4Cu10(pz)11} complexes: synthesis, crystal structure, and properties

A new 3D POMOF based on Wells–Dawson arsenotungstate was prepared using a hydrothermal reaction. The POMOF exhibits a novel topological structure, photoluminescence properties, and excellent photocatalytic activity.