Gray Ta2O5 Nanowires with Greatly Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

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• 作者：Guilian Zhu ; Tianquan Lin ; Houlei Cui ; Wenli Zhao ; Hui Zhang ; Fuqiang Huang
• 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：January 13, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：8
• 期：1
• 页码：122-127
• 全文大小：425K
• ISSN：1944-8252

文摘

Black TiO₂, with enhanced solar absorption and photocatalytic activity, has gained extensive attention, inspiring us to investigate the reduction of other wide-bandgap semiconductors for improved performance. Herein, we report the preparation of gray Ta₂O₅ nanowires with disordered shells and abundant defects via aluminum reduction. Its water decontamination is 2.5 times faster and hydrogen production is 2.3-fold higher over pristine Ta₂O₅. The reduced Ta₂O₅ also delivers significantly enhanced photoelectrochemical performance compared with the pristine Ta₂O₅ nanowires, including much higher carrier concentration, easier electron–hole separation and 11 times larger photocurrent. Our results demonstrate that Ta₂O₅ will have great potentials in photocatalysis and solar energy utilization after proper modification.