Topotactic formation of poriferous (Al,C)–Ta2O5 mesocrystals for improved visible-light photocatalysis

Poriferous monocrystal-like nanostructures are contributing to fabricate long-distance charge transfer pathways and rapid diffusions of the degraded products, and attracts wide attentions. In this work, layered and poriferous (Al,C)–Ta2O5 mesocrystals were fabricated by topotactic transformation strategy with Ta4AlC3 MAX as starting materials for visible-light photocatalytic antibiotic degradation. The prepared sample exhibited enhanced visible-light absorption and visible-light photocatalytic performance, far superior to those of commercial Ta2O5 and Ta4AlC3 MAX, which was mainly because of the elemental doping in the samples. The experimental results also indicated that continuous attacks of the photo-generated holes and ·O2− species efficiently induced efficient visible-light photodegradation of tetracycline. Current work also indicates a new and potential tantalum-based semiconductors for high-performance environmental photocatalysis.