Ultrasmall nanoparticles with tunable photo-optical properties and colloidal nature are ideal for a wide range of photocatalytic reaction. Herein, we reported the facile synthesis of ultrasmall aluminum nanoparticles (AlNPs), which exhibited unique UV-B photoluminescence and excitation wavelength dependent fluorescence characteristic. Spherical aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (ACTEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to study the microstructure and verify the successful synthesis of AlNPs. Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy was employed to gain insight into the unique photoluminescence behavior. The photocatalytic activity of ultrasmall AlNPs was evaluated by the photoreduction of resazurin (RZ) to resorufin (RF) under UV light irradiation. This photodegradation of RZ obeyed the pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics with reaction rate achieved 6.62 × 10-2 min-1. Our study suggested that the prepared ultrasmall AlNPs have a great potential application in photocatalytic field.
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