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Efficient visible-light-driven water oxidation by single-crystal Ta3N5 nanoparticles

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Abstract

Ta3N5 is regarded as a promising photocatalyst for solar water splitting because of its excellent visible light absorption characteristics and simple composition. Conventional Ta3N5 photocatalysts prepared from oxide precursors typically comprise aggregated polycrystalline particles with defects and grain boundaries that reduce the water oxidation activity of the material. In the present work, well-dispersed Ta3N5 nanoparticulate single crystals were synthesized via a mild nitridation process using pure Ta metal nanopowder or Ta nanopowder mixed with NaCl. The resulting high-quality Ta3N5 nanoparticles, after loading with an oxygen evolution cocatalyst, exhibited impressively high photocatalytic performance during O2 evolution from a sacrificial AgNO3 solution, with an apparent quantum yield of 9.4% at 420 nm. Our findings suggest a new approach to the facile fabrication of nanostructured single-crystal photocatalysts for efficient solar water splitting, based on the use of metal nanopowders.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Artificial Photosynthesis Project of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Part of this work was conducted at the Advanced Characterization Nanotechnology Platform of the University of Tokyo, supported by the “Nanotechnology Platform” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan (No. JPMXP09A-19-UT-0023). The authors thank Ms. Michiko Obata of Shinshu University for her assistance in XPS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Initiative for Supra-Materials, Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano-shi, Nagano, 380-8553, Japan

    Zheng Wang, Jeongsuk Seo, Takashi Hisatomi, Jiadong Xiao, Shanshan Chen, Lihua Lin, Zhenhua Pan, Tsuyoshi Takata & Kazunari Domen

  2. Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Zheng Wang

  3. Institute of Engineering Innovation, The University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Mamiko Nakabayashi & Naoya Shibata

  4. Global Advanced Metals Inc., 1223 County Line Road, Boyertown, PA, 19512, USA

    Mary Krause, Nick Yin & Gordon Smith

  5. Office of University Professors, The University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Kazunari Domen

Authors
  1. Zheng Wang
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  2. Jeongsuk Seo
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  3. Takashi Hisatomi
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  5. Jiadong Xiao
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  7. Lihua Lin
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  8. Zhenhua Pan
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  9. Mary Krause
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  12. Naoya Shibata
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  13. Tsuyoshi Takata
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  14. Kazunari Domen
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Correspondence to Kazunari Domen.

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Wang, Z., Seo, J., Hisatomi, T. et al. Efficient visible-light-driven water oxidation by single-crystal Ta3N5 nanoparticles. Nano Res. 16, 4562–4567 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4732-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4732-5

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