Vibronically induced activation mechanism in photocatalysis of highly dispersed vanadium oxide supported on silica, V2O5/SiO2: Evidence in phosphorescence spectra

Vibronic progressions in the phosphorescence spectrum of highly dispersed vanadium oxide on silica support, V2O5/SiO2, measured by Hazenkamp and Blasse [18] is simulated. The irregular peak spacing is revealed to be evidence of the existence of a few active vibrational modes coupled with the electronic excited T 1 state, which is assigned to the active state as a photocatalyst. Among the active modes, the Jahn–Teller mode is responsible for the photocatalytic reactivity.