Gallium is a near room temperature liquid metal with extraordinary properties that partly originate from the self‐limiting oxide layer formed on its surface. Taking advantage of the surface gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃), this work introduces a novel technique to synthesize gallium oxide nanoflakes at high yield by harvesting the self‐limiting native surface oxide of gallium. The synthesis process follows a facile two‐step method comprising liquid gallium metal sonication in DI water and subsequent annealing. In order to explore the functionalities of the product, the obtained hexagonal α‐Ga₂O₃ nanoflakes are used as a photocatalytic material to decompose organic model dyes. Excellent photocatalytic activity is observed under solar light irradiation. To elucidate the origin of these enhanced catalytic properties, the electronic band structure of the synthesized α‐Ga₂O₃ is carefully assessed. Consequently, this excellent photocatalytic performance is associated with an energy bandgap reduction, due to the presence of trap states, which are located at ≈1.65 eV under the conduction band minimum. This work presents a novel route for synthesizing oxide nanostructures that can be extended to other low melting temperature metals and their alloys, with great prospects for scaling up and high yield synthesis.

中文翻译：

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超声辅助的具有陷阱状态吸收的氧化镓悬浮液合成：光化学测试

镓是一种接近室温的液态金属，具有非凡的性能，部分原因是其表面形成的自限氧化层。利用表面氧化镓（Ga ₂ O ₃）的优势，这项工作引入了一种新技术，即通过收获自限的天然镓表面氧化物，以高收率合成氧化镓纳米薄片。合成过程遵循一种简便的两步法，包括在去离子水中进行液态镓金属超声处理，然后进行退火。为了探索了产品的功能性，将得到的六方晶的α-嘎₂ ö ₃纳米薄片用作光催化材料以分解有机模型染料。在太阳光照射下观察到优异的光催化活性。为了阐明这些增强的催化性质的起源，的合成α-嘎电子能带结构₂ ö ₃被仔细评估。因此，由于存在陷阱态，该优异的光催化性能与能带隙减小相关，陷阱态位于导带最小值下的≈1.65eV处。这项工作提出了一种合成氧化物纳米结构的新方法，该方法可以扩展到其他低熔点金属及其合金，具有扩大规模和高产率合成的广阔前景。