Topological synthesis of crystalline Ag/T‐Nb2O5 nanobelts with enhanced solar photoelectrochemical properties for splitting water

Abstract

Abstract The tetragonal phase Nb2O5 (T‐Nb2O5) nanobelts with preferentially exposed the (010) facet have been successfully prepared for the first time by insitu topological reaction using the KNb3O8 nanobelts as the precursor. Meanwhile, the transformation mechanism of the crystal structure and morphology from the layered KNb3O8 nanobelt to the T‐Nb2O5 nanobelt was revealed in detail by using XRD, FE‐SEM, TEM, HRTEM, SAED, UV‐vis DRS, EDX, XPS, and Raman spectra. In addition, Ag deposited T‐Nb2O5 (Ag/T‐Nb2O5) nanobelts were prepared by photo‐reduction reaction. The photoelectrochemical properties of the T‐Nb2O5 nanobelts and Ag/T‐Nb2O5 nanobelts as a photocatalyst were evaluated by splitting water under simulated sunlight. The results show that the photocurrent density generated by the prepared Ag/T‐Nb2O5 sample is 48.1 µA∙cm−2, which is 2.3 times that of the T‐Nb2O5 sample, and the prepared tetragonal phase T‐Nb2O5 nanobelts produce a photocurrent value 1.5 times that of the contrast orthogonal phase O‐Nb2O5 nanosheets. It indicates that the (010) facet of the tetragonal phase Nb2O5 is one of the highest photocatalytic active surfaces, and the visible light utilization efficiency of the T‐Nb2O5 nanobelt with Ag deposited on the surface has been significantly improved, which implies that it has potential applications in the field of photocatalysis.

Keywords

• Ag/T‐Nb2O5 nanobelts
• crystal structure evolution
• photoelectrochemical properties
• topological hydrothermal synthesis