Structure-retentive synthesis of a highly ordered mesoporous Nb2O5/N-doped graphene nanocomposite with superior interfacial contacts and improved visible-light photocatalysis

Abstract

Owing to their unique chemical and structural properties, highly ordered mesoporous structures are expected to be one of the most promising functional materials for catalysis. In this paper, highly ordered mesoporous niobium pentoxide (MNb) arrayed on N-doped graphene (MNb–NGR) was facilely prepared. The data showed the MNb–NGR composites displaying broad light harvesting in the visible-light region and superior performance for water splitting and resulting in hydrogen (H₂) production. Under 5 h visible light illumination, the amount of H₂ evolved using the optimized photocatalyst reached 121.1 μmol g⁻¹, which was 7.8 times that when using MNb. The improvement in the photocatalytic performance indicated that the hierarchical structure and synergistic effects of MNb and NGR, as well as nitrogen richness of the NGR, were beneficial for promoting charge separation. The study highlights the potential applications of highly ordered mesoporous structure configurations containing N-doped graphene in visible-light photocatalytic systems.