Effect of Ni Substitution on the Structure and Photocatalytic Activity of InTaO4 Under Visible Light Irradiation

Abstract

The effect of Ni substitution on the structure and photocatalytic H2 and O2 evolutions of InTaO4 under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm) from aqueous CH3OH/H2O and AgNO3/H2O solutions were investigated. The photocatalysts were prepared by the solid-state reaction method and characterized by powder x-ray diffraction and Rietveld structure refinement. These photocatalysts crystallize in the same wolframite structure, but lattice parameters decrease with increase of x in In1−xNixTaO4 (0 ≤x ≤ 0.2). The photocatalytic activity changed with the variation of x in In1−xNixTaO4and the photocatalyst at x = 0.1 showed the highest activity, which increased 8 times compared with nonsubstituted photocatalyst.