Combinatorial Discovery of Lanthanum-Tantalum Oxynitride Solar Light Absorbers with Dilute Nitrogen for Solar Fuel Applications

Oxynitrides with the photoelectrochemical stability of oxides and desirable band energetics of nitrides comprise a promising class of materials for solar photochemistry. Challenges in synthesizing a wide variety of oxynitride materials has limited exploration of this class of functional materials, which we address using a reactive cosputtering combined with rapid thermal processing method to synthesize multi-cation-multi-anion libraries. We demonstrate the synthesis of a La_xTa_1-xO_yN_z thin film composition spread library and its characterization by both traditional thin film materials characterization and custom combinatorial optical spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) techniques, ultimately establishing structure-chemistry-property relationships. We observe that over a substantial La-Ta composition range the thin films crystallize in the same perovskite LaTaON₂ structure with significant variation of anion chemistry. The relative invariance in optical band gap demonstrates a remarkable decoupling of composition and band energetics so that the composition can be optimized while retaining the desirable 2 eV band gap energy. We also demonstrate the intercalation of diatomic nitrogen into the La₃TaO₇ structure, which gives rise to a direct-allowed optical transition at 2.2 eV, less than half the value of the oxide's band gap. These findings motivate further exploration of the visible light response of this material that is predicted to be stable over a wide range of electrochemical potential.

The Kirkendall effect towards oxynitride nanotubes with improved visible light driven conversion of CO2 into CH4

ZnGaNO nanotubes can be obtained via the Kirkendall effect, exhibiting the high photocatalytic performance due to the short carrier diffusion distance and less crystal defects.

Inorganic perovskite photocatalysts for solar energy utilization

This review specifically summarizes the recent development of perovskite photocatalysts and their applications in water splitting and environmental remediation.

Design Guidelines for High-Performance Particle-Based Photoanodes for Water Splitting: Lanthanum Titanium Oxynitride as a Model

Semiconductor powders are perfectly suited for the scalable fabrication of particle-based photoelectrodes, which can be used to split water using the sun as a renewable energy source. This systematic study is focused on variation of the electrode design using LaTiO2 N as a model system. We present the influence of particle morphology on charge separation and transport properties combined with post-treatment procedures, such as necking and size-dependent co-catalyst loading. Five rules are proposed to guide the design of high-performance particle-based photoanodes by adding or varying several process steps. We also specify how much efficiency improvement can be achieved using each of the steps. For example, implementation of a connectivity network and surface area enhancement leads to thirty times improvement in efficiency and co-catalyst loading achieves an improvement in efficiency by a factor of seven. Some of these guidelines can be adapted to non-particle-based photoelectrodes.

Facile approach to synthesize g-PAN/g-C3N4 composites with enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution activity

Novel composites consisting of graphitized polyacrylonitrile (g-PAN) nanosheets grown on layered g-C3N4 sheets were synthesized through a facile one-step thermal condensation of PAN and melamine for the first time. Photoluminescence spectroscopy and the photoelectrochemical measurements reveal that g-PAN nanosheets act as effective electron transfer channels to facilitate charge carrier separation in g-PAN/g-C3N4 composites. The g-PAN/g-C3N4 composites exhibit significantly enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance for H2 evolution over pristine g-C3N4. The 5.0 wt % g-PAN/g-C3N4 composite has optimal H2 evolution rate of 37 μmol h(-1), exceeding 3.8 times over pristine g-C3N4. We have proposed a possible mechanism for charge separation and transfer in the g-PAN/g-C3N4 composites to explain the enhanced photocatalytic performance.

Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of perovskite niobium oxynitrides with wide visible-light absorption bands

Photocatalytic activities of perovskite-type niobium oxynitrides (CaNbO₂N, SrNbO₂N, BaNbO₂N, and LaNbON₂) were examined for hydrogen and oxygen evolution from water under visible-light irradiation. These niobium oxynitrides were prepared by heating the corresponding oxide precursors, which were synthesized using the polymerized complex method, for 15 h under a flow of ammonia. They possess visible-light absorption bands between 600-750 nm, depending on the A-site cations in the structures. The oxynitride CaNbO₂N, was found to be active for hydrogen and oxygen evolution from methanol and aqueous AgNO₃, respectively, even under irradiation by light at long wavelengths (λ<560 nm). The nitridation temperature dependence of CaNbO₂N was investigated and 1023 K was found to be the optimal temperature. At lower temperatures, the oxynitride phase is not adequately produced, whereas higher temperatures produce more reduced niobium species (e. g., Nb³(+) and Nb⁴(+)), which can act as electron-hole recombination centers, resulting in a decrease in activity.