Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2006, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (7): 556-558.

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Photocatalytic Water Splitting to Hydrogen over a Visible Light-Driven LaTaON2 Catalyst

LIU Meiying1, YOU Wansheng1, LEI Zhibin1, Tuyoshi TAKATA2, Kazunari DOMEN2*, LI Can1*   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China; 2 Department of Chemical System Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
  • Received:2006-07-25 Online:2006-07-25 Published:2006-07-25

Abstract: LaTaON2 with a perovskite structure has been successfully prepared by a high-temperature ammonolysis technique using NH4Cl as the mineralizer. The optical absorption edge of LaTaON2 is significantly red-shifted compared to that of LaTaO4. Under visible light irradiation, LaTaON2 with Pt or Ru as a co-catalyst shows high activity for reduction of water to H2 in the presence of ethanol as a sacrificial electron reagent. A remarkable improvement in production efficiency was observed when both Pt and Ru are present.

Key words: high-temperature ammonolysis, lanthanum, tantalum, oxynitride, platinum, ruthenium, visible light, photocatalysis, water splitting, hydrogen