Insight into the mechanism of deep NO photo-oxidation by bismuth tantalate with oxygen vacancies.

Deeply photocatalytic oxidation of nitrogen oxides is still difficult to achieve, mainly limited by few intrinsic active sites and inefficient carrier separation of photocatalysts. Accordingly, we develop a simple room temperature tactic to introduce oxygen vacancies (OVs) into Bi3TaO7 (BTO). Based on solid experimental and DFT theoretical supports, we explore the mechanism of NO removal over OVs decorated BTO (OVs-BTO). OVs can not only alter the distribution of local electrons to result in the formation of a fast charge transfer channel between OVs and the adjacent Ta atoms, which improves the transport rate of photogenerated carriers; but also function as active sites to adsorb small molecules (NO, O2 and H2O), which being activated and positively drive the NO oxidation reaction. In order to investigate a possible reaction path, a combination of in-situ DRIFTS and simulated Gibbs free energy reveals that the intermediate products of OVs-BTO are helpful to promote the deep oxidation of NO to NO3-, while pristine BTO is more likely to produce NO2 intermediate toxic by-products, which greatly hinders the deep photocatalytic oxidation of NO. This work provides insights into the role of OVs in photocatalysts, and also points out a guideline for the mechanism of semiconductor photocatalysts in eliminating gaseous pollutants.