Synthesis of Nitrogen-doped KTaTeO6 with Enhanced Visible Light Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, RVR & JC College of Engineering, Chowdavaram, Guntur 522 019, India

²Department of Chemistry, Osmania University, Hyderabad 500 007, India

³Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), Cherlapally, HCL (PO), Hyderabad 500 051, India

⁴Department of Chemical Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam 530 003, India

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2021, 12 (4), 21041621

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2021.041621

Publication Date (Web): Feb 01, 2021

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: mugavithal@gmail.com

Abstract

Anion doping is one of the efficient ways to tailor the bandgap of photocatalysts for the treatment of polluted water. The present work describes the improved photocatalytic activity of defect pyrochlore, KTaTeO₆ (KTTO), upon nitrogen doping, towards the degradation of methylene blue under visible light irradiation. The parent KTaTeO₆ was synthesized by solid-state method. The N-doped KTaTeO₆ (N-KTTO) was prepared by nitridation method using NH₃. Techniques such as the XRD, N₂ adsorption-desorption, FE-SEM/EDX/EDS elemental mapping, TEM-HRTEM, UV-Vis DRS, XPS, Raman, and PL were employed to characterize the physicochemical properties of photocatalysts. The N-doping in KTTO has resulted in enlarged surface area, narrowed the bandgap, and reduced the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to parent KTTO. The active species trapping experiments were conducted to elucidate the mechanism of photodegradation. The N-KTTO is chemically stable and can be used at least up to five cycles.

Keywords

Defect Pyrochlore, KTaTeO₆, N-doping, Bandgap energy, visible light absorption, ^&bull,OH radicals