Issue 32, 2017

Facile synthesis of porous La–Ti–O and LaTiO2N microspheres

Abstract

Photocatalysts offer an excellent opportunity to shift the global energy landscape from a fossil fuel-dependent paradigm to sustainable and carbon-neutral solar fuels. Oxynitride materials such as LaTiO2N are potential photocatalysts for the water splitting reaction due to their high oxidative stability and their narrow band gaps, which are suitable for visible light absorption. However, facile synthetic routes to metal oxynitrides with controlled morphologies are rare. Ultrasonic spray synthesis (USS) offers a facile method toward complex metal oxides which can potentially be converted to oxynitrides with preservation of the microsphere structures that typify the products from such aerosol routes. Here, La–Ti–O microspheres were facilely produced by USS and converted by ammonolysis to LaTiO2N microspheres with porous shells and hollow interiors. This particle architecture is accounted for by coupling suitable combustion chemistry with the aerosol technique, producing precursor particles where the La3+ and Ti4+ are well-mixed at small length scales; this feature enables preservation of the microsphere morphology during nitridation despite the crystallographic changes that occur. The LaTiO2N microspheres are comparable oxygen evolving photocatalysts to samples produced by conventional solid state methods. These results demonstrate the utility of USS as a facile, potentially scalable route to complex photocatalytic materials and their precursors with distinct morphologies.

Graphical abstract: Facile synthesis of porous La–Ti–O and LaTiO2N microspheres

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
31 3 2017
Accepted
28 6 2017
First published
06 7 2017

Dalton Trans., 2017,46, 10727-10733

Facile synthesis of porous La–Ti–O and LaTiO2N microspheres

E. E. Rugen, K. M. Koczkur and S. E. Skrabalak, Dalton Trans., 2017, 46, 10727 DOI: 10.1039/C7DT01165B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements