Photocatalytic Conversion of CO2 by H2O as an Electron Donor over NaTaO3 with Controlled Morphologies Using a Series of Cocatalysts

The morphology of the primary semiconductor material is an essential factor for the performance of photocatalysts. In this work, we synthesized the cubic facet (100) and the anisotropic facets ((100) and (110)) of NaTaO3 as photocatalysts. They were assessed by the photocatalytic conversion of CO2 using H2O as the electron donor and a series of cocatalysts, including Ga(OH)(3), Cd(OH)(2), Zn(OH)(2), and amorphous ZnGa2O4, relative to Ag nanoparticles as a conventional cocatalyst. The results demonstrated that the performances of studied cocatalysts depended on the morphologies of NaTaO3. Ga(OH)(3) (3.0 vs. 20.1 mu mol h(-1)), Zn(OH)(2) (23.1 vs. 52.4 mu mol h(-1)), amorphous ZnGa2O4 (37.4 vs. 85.5 mu mol h(-1)), and Ag nanoparticles (48.9 vs. 92.4 mu mol h(-1)) exhibited higher formation rates of CO over anisotropic NaTaO3 than the cubic ones. On the contrary, Cd(OH)(2) (62.1 vs. 32.3 mu mol h(-1)) cocatalyst exhibited higher performance over cubic NaTaO3 than the anisotropic ones.