A Promising Application of Optical Hexagonal TaN in Photocatalytic Reactions

Huimin Liu; Hui Song; Wei Zhou; Xianguang Meng; Jinhua Ye

doi:10.1002/anie.201810886

A Promising Application of Optical Hexagonal TaN in Photocatalytic Reactions

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2018 Dec 17;57(51):16781-16784. doi: 10.1002/anie.201810886. Epub 2018 Nov 15.

Authors

Huimin Liu^{1

2}, Hui Song^{1

3}, Wei Zhou^{4

5}, Xianguang Meng¹, Jinhua Ye^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.
² The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemical Engineering Building J01, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia.
³ Graduate School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0814, Japan.
⁴ TJU-NIMS International Collaboration Laboratory, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin, 300072, China.
⁵ Department of Applied Physics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials Physics and Preparing Technology, Faculty of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.

PMID: 30332526
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201810886

Abstract

Searching for highly active and efficient photocatalysts for photo-induced/photo-assisted reactions remains the most challenging task for solar energy utilization. In previous studies, the search for such materials has mainly focused on precious plasmonic metals (for example, Au, Ag, and Cu) and semiconductor oxides (for example, TiO₂ , ZnO, and WO₃ ). Herein, we report the application of hexagonal tantalum mononitride (TaN) as an optical support in photocatalytic reactions, which could harness visible light to assist CO₂ conversion and decompose organic pollutants. Theoretical studies indicated that the improved electron-hole separation in polar TaN under visible-light illumination was critical for its use in photocatalysis. This study could guide the use of TaN in various photocatalytic reactions and wider optical applications.

Keywords: CO2 photoreduction; optical properties; photocatalysis; tantalum mononitride; visible light.

Abstract

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