Abstract

A mixture of a nanostructured Rh/RhO(2)phase was easily obtained by thermally treating the macromolecular Chitosan center dot(RhCl3)(x)precursor, while the Rh/Rh(2)O(3)phase was obtained by pyrolyzing PSP-4-PVP center dot(RhCl3)(x,)precursors. The nature of the polymeric precursor acting as a solid-state template does not significantly influence the "foam-like" morphology of the Rh/RhO(2)and Rh/Rh(2)O(3)nanoparticles. The size of the obtained products is within the range of 16 nm, as confirmed by HRTEM. A possible formation of the Rh/RhO(2)and Rh/Rh(2)O(3)nanoparticles is proposed. The bandgap values estimated from Tauc plots are 3.7 eV, and 3.0 eV for Rh/RhO(2)and Rh2O3, respectively. Their photocatalytic activity was measured, for the first time, using a methylene blue pollutant, achieving a photodegradation of 78% for Rh/RhO(2)and 70% for Rh/Rh(2)O(3)in 300 min.