Highly efficient visible light-induced O₂ generation by self-Assembled nanohybrids of inorganic nanosheets and polyoxometalate nanoclusters

Unusually high photocatalytic activity of visible light-induced O₂ generation can be achieved by electrostatically-derived self-Assembly between exfoliated Zn-Cr-LDH 2D nanosheets and POM 0D nanoclusters (W₇O_{24 62} and V₁₀O_{28 62}) acting as an electron acceptor. This self-Assembly can provide a high flexibility in the control of the chemical composition and pore structure of the resulting LDH-based nanohybrids. The hybridization with POM nanoclusters remarkably enhances the photocatalytic activity of the pristine Zn-Cr-LDH, which is attributable to the formation of porous structure and depression of charge recombination. Of prime interest is that the excellent photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared Zn-Cr-LDH-POM nanohybrid for visible light-induced O2 generation can be further enhanced by calcination at 200 6C, leading to the very high apparent quantum yield of ,75.2% at 420 nm. The present findings clearly demonstrate that the self-Assembly of LDH-POM is fairly powerful in synthesizing novel LDH-based porous nanohybrid photocatalyst for visible light-induced O2 generation.