In-situ synthesis of crystalline Ag-Nb2O5 nanobelt clusters with enhanced solar photo-electrochemical performance for splitting water

Publication date: 5 October 2017
Source:Materials & Design, Volume 131
Author(s): Puhong Wen, Lili Ai, Fenyan Wei, Dengwei Hu, Jingjing Guo, Fangyi Yao, Taotao Liu
The crystalline hexagonal Nb2O5 (H-Nb2O5) nanobelt clusters dominantly exposed (−110) facet are firstly synthesized by a hydrothermal topological reaction with a precursor of fiber-like K2Nb2O6·H2O. The structure and morphology of samples obtained at different temperatures and times are investigated. There are two steps in the synthesis process. One is the acid-exchanging reaction transforming into amorphous phase protonated niobate (HNO), and the other is dehydration reaction transforming into H-Nb2O5, and simultaneous dissolution reaction which forms nanobelt cluster morphology from the fiber-like particle. The formation mechanism of H-Nb2O5 nanobelt clusters has been proposed in detail. After photo-reduced reaction between the H-Nb2O5 nanobelt clusters and AgNO3 solution, the dominantly exposed (−110) facet of H-Nb2O5 nanobelt is homogeneously covered by Ag nanoparticles. The photo-electrochemical performance of the obtained H-Nb2O5 nanobelt clusters and Ag deposited H-Nb2O5 (Ag-Nb2O5) nanobelt clusters as photocatalysts are evaluated by splitting water under simulated sunlight illumination, and the generated photocurrent of Ag-Nb2O5 sample is 10.73μA, which is 535 times that of the H-Nb2O5 sample. The results demonstrate that the Ag-Nb2O5 nanobelt clusters have a high photo-electrochemical performance as well as good sunlight photoelectric conversion efficiency.

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