Metal oxynitrides and nitrides are important materials for use as photocatalysts due to their ability to absorb visible light in comparison to their oxide counterparts. The photoactivity of these materials should be enhanced through shape-controlled particles and nanostructuring; however, facile syntheses to high fidelity shape control are rare. Here, the syntheses of Ta3N5 and SrTaO2N as samples comprised of shape-controlled crystals were demonstrated. Specifically, shape-controlled oxide crystals were prepared by aerosol-assisted molten salt syntheses, where the spatial and temporal confinement of the molten salt droplets faciliates formation of shape-controlled crystals at nanoscale dimensions. These oxide crystals then serve as templates to the oxynitride or nitride phase with preservation of particle shape during nitridation. Moreover, the structure-controlled samples yield enhanced photocatalytic performances for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) compared to structurally ill-defined samples. Significantly, other metal oxynitrides or nitrides with defined nanoscale features and enhanced photoactivity should be possible through this synthetic approach.

Aerosol synthesis of shape-controlled nanomaterials for photocatalytic applications

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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