A novel 3D inorganic heteropoly blue as visible light responsive photocatalyst.

A new 3D extended heteropoly blue Ba4[SiW(V)4W(VI)8O40]·H2O (1) composed of twelve-coordinated α-Keggin anions [SiW(V)4W(VI)8O40](8-) and eight-coordinated Ba sites {BaO8} has been hydrothermally synthesized and fully characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, XPS, single crystal X-ray and X-ray powder (XRPD) diffraction. 1 represents the first inorganic 3D framework constructed from four-electron reduced α-Keggin anions linked by alkaline earth metals. The photocatalytic activity of 1 has been evaluated for rhodamine B (RhB) degradation.