Preparation, characterization of the Ta-doped ZnO nanoparticles and their photocatalytic activity under visible-light illumination

This paper describes a novel catalyst of the Ta-doped ZnO nanocrystals prepared by a modified polymerizable complex method using the water-soluble tantalum precursor as the sources of Ta. The catalysts were characterized by means of various analytical techniques as a function of Ta content (x=0–4 mol%) systematically. A remarkable advantage of the results was confirmed that dopant Ta enhanced the visible-light absorption of ZnO and the low-solubility tantalum doping could restrain the growth of crystal and minish the particle size. The relationship between the physicochemical property and the photocatalytic performance was discussed, and it was found that the photocatalytic activity in the photochemical degradation of methylene blue under visible-light irradiation (λ⩾420 nm) was dependent on the contents of the dopant, which could affect the particle size, concentration of surface hydroxyl groups and active hydrogen-related defect sites, and the visible-light absorption. The highest photocatalytic activity was obtained for the 1.0 mol% Ta-doped ZnO sample.