Visible-light-responsive Photocatalyst Based on Nitrogen-doped Bulk Oxide YTaO_4-x N_y for Z-scheme Overall Water...

Nitrogen doping into oxide has been proved to be an effective strategy to extend visible-light utilization of oxides with layered or channeled structure, but it is shortage for the bulk oxides free of layered or channeled structure. Here, we report a novel nitrogen-doped bulk oxide (denoted as YTaO_4-x N_y ) with good visible light response. As benefited from the strong hybridization of N 2p and O 2p electronic state according to the density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the band gap (3.6 eV) of YTaO₄ precursor was sharply narrowed to 2.4 eV on YTaO_4-x N_y due to the obvious uplift of the valence band maximum (VBM). After decorated with the platinum cocatalyst, the Pt/YTaO_4-x N_y was used as the H₂ -evolving photocatalyst for assembly of Z-scheme overall water splitting system by coupling with the PtO_x /WO₃ as the oxygen evolution photocatalyst and using the I^- /IO^3- as the shuttle ions. This work enriches the material database of nitrogen-doped oxide with wide visible light absorption and shows its promising application in solar-to-chemical conversion.