Ab initio study of TaON, an active photocatalyst under visible light irradiation

Tantalum oxynitride has been studied as an active photocatalyst under visible light, using a full potential linearized augmented plane wave method within the framework of density functional theory. The electronic and optical properties of TaON are calculated using local density approximation (LDA), generalized gradient approximation (GGA), Engel-Vosko generalized gradient approximation (EVGGA) and the modified Becke-Johnson (mBJ) potential approximation to describe the exchange-correlation potential. The calculated band gap value obtained by the mBJ approximation approach (2.5 eV) is very close to the experimental result (2.5 eV). We found that hybridization among the Ta-d, O-p and N-p states results in the formation of a covalent bond between Ta-N and Ta-O. The calculated optical properties confirm that the TaON is an active photocatalyst under visible light irradiation. TaON has a high dielectric constant and the components show anisotropy in the energy range between 3.0 eV and 10.0 eV. A high refractive index of 2.47 at 632.8 nm is obtained which shows better agreement with the experimental value (2.5 at 632.8 nm) than previous results.