Effect of surfactants on the performance of 3D morphology W ₁₈ O ₄₉ by solvothermal synthesis

Three-dimensional W ₁₈ O ₄₉ nanostructures were synthesized by a solvothermal method using WCl ₆ as precursor and ethanol as solvent. The effects of surfactant on the crystalline phase and morphology of tungsten oxide were investigated. It was found that the photothermal conversion performance and the nanostructures were affected by the surfactant additives. The results of XRD, SEM, TEM, BET and XPS indicated that the addition of surfactant had no effect on the composition of the samples, while the morphology of the sample changed from the irregular massive structure to the uniform polygon, lamellar or nest structures. The results of DRS and heat resistance test showed that the film had excellent infrared shielding properties. The sample synthesized by the adding of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant showed only 34.04% transmittance in the infrared wavelength range, while the transmittance maintained at high level of 77.5% in the visible range. It reached to higher heat resistance of 6.5 °C under 1 h sunlight irradiation than other samples, the temperature change was only 41.7% of the blank test.