Title
Effect of Oxygen Content on the Photoelectrochemical Activity of Crystallographically Preferred Oriented Porous Ta<inf>3</inf>N<inf>5</inf> Nanotubes
Date Issued
27 August 2015
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
research article
Author(s)
Khan S.
Baptista D.L.
Gonçalves R.V.
Fernandes J.A.
Dupont J.
Santos M.J.L.
Teixeira S.R.
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract
Crystallographically preferred oriented porous Ta3N5 nanotubes (NTs) were synthesized by thermal nitridation of vertically oriented, thick-walled Ta2O5 NTs, strongly adhered to the substrate. The adherence on the substrate and the wall thickness of the Ta2O5 NTs were fine-tuned by anodization, thereby helping to preserve their tubular morphology for nitridation at higher temperatures. Samples were studied by scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Rietveld refinements, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectra, and electrochemical techniques. Oxygen content in the structure of porous Ta3N5 NTs strongly influenced their photoelectrochemical activity. Structural analyses revealed that the nitridation temperature has crystallographically controlled the preferential orientation along the (110) direction, reduced the oxygen content in the crystalline structure and the tubular matrix, and increased the grain size. The preferred oriented porous Ta3N5 NTs optimized by the nitridation temperature presented an enhanced photocurrent of 7.4 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs RHE under AM 1.5 (1 Sun) illumination. Hydrogen production was evaluated by gas chromatography, resulting in 32.8 μmol of H2 in 1 h from the pristine porous Ta3N5 NTs. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has shown an effect of nitridation temperature on the interfacial charge transport resistance at the semiconductor-liquid interface; however, the flat band of Ta3N5 NTs remained unchanged. (Figure Presented).
Start page
19906
End page
19914
Volume
119
Issue
34
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Física atómica, molecular y química
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84940570939
Source
Journal of Physical Chemistry C
ISSN of the container
19327447
Sponsor(s)
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus