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Solvothermal fusion of Ag‐ and N‐doped LiTaO 3 perovskite nanospheres for improved photocatalytic hydrogen production
Author(s) -
Kalaiselvi C.R.,
Senthil T.S.,
Shankar M.V.,
Sasirekha V.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
applied organometallic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1099-0739
pISSN - 0268-2605
DOI - 10.1002/aoc.6207
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , chemistry , band gap , dopant , doping , hydrogen production , water splitting , quantum yield , perovskite (structure) , analytical chemistry (journal) , electronegativity , semiconductor , hydrogen , materials science , optoelectronics , crystallography , catalysis , optics , organic chemistry , physics , fluorescence
Tantalate semiconductor photocatalyst has received significant attention as an alternative promising material to mitigate the globally increasing energy demand with the course of action of the produced hydrogen. In this report, an efficient enhancement in the hydrogen production under ultraviolet (UV) light by Ag‐ and N‐doped LiTaO 3 via solvothermal strategy is proposed. The structural appearance and the spherical morphology are affirmed from the X‐ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) analysis. The bandgap of the prepared photocatalysts is calculated as 5.12, 4.92, and 4.82 eV for undoped LiTaO 3 , Ag, and N‐doped LiTaO 3 nanoparticles using Tauc's plot. Moreover, the band position of the synthesized LiTaO 3 and also with its dopants is calculated by the Mulliken electro negativity method. The elemental composition of the synthesized photocatalyst is confirmed from the energy dispersive analysis (EDS). Photocatalytic water splitting results over Ag‐ and N‐doped LiTaO 3 photocatalyst showed that the rate of H 2 evolution from formic acid aqueous solution was 240 and 123 μmolh −1 with an apparent quantum yield of 3.11% and 1.59%, whereas for undoped LiTaO 3 , the rate is quite lower to be 71 μmolh −1 . The reason behind the high catalytic activity of Ag‐doped LiTaO 3 is explained by the fact that the higher electronegativity of Ag (1.93) as compared with Ta (1.5) resulted in quite transfer of photoexcited electrons from the conduction band of LiTaO 3 to the Ag species. Interestingly, up to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study regarding the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution for Ag‐ and N‐doped LiTaO 3 .