Hierarchically porous metastable β-Ag2WO4 hollow nanospheres: controlled synthesis and high photocatalytic activity.

Metastable materials have received extensive attention due to their unique physical and chemical properties which are different from those of the thermodynamically stable phase. However, the variety of reported metastable materials is still very limited owing to difficulties in the effective synthesis of pure metastable materials because they can easily transform into the corresponding stable phases. Therefore, it is crucial and a great challenge to explore new metastable materials with novel and fascinating functions. In this study, hierarchically porous metastable β-Ag2WO4 hollow nanospheres with a diameter of 50-500 nm were prepared for the first time by a facile precipitation reaction between AgNO3 and Na2WO4 in the presence of poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA). It was found that the PMAA not only provided a spherical soft template to induce the formation of hollow nanospheres but also worked as an inhibitor to prevent the phase transformation from thermodynamically unstable β-Ag2WO4 to stable α-Ag2WO4 phase. The resultant metastable β-Ag2WO4 hollow nanospheres show a larger specific surface area (165.5 m(2) g(-1)) owing to the hierarchically porous structure (micropores, mesopores, and macropores), resulting in a high photocatalytic performance for the decomposition of methyl orange and phenol aqueous solutions. The present work can provide some new insight into the smart design and preparation of other new metastable hollow materials, and the prepared metastable β-Ag2WO4 hollow nanospheres have various potential applications in chemical reactors, drug-delivery carriers, solar cells, catalysis, and separation and purification fields.