Plasma-Based Synthesis of Tritantalum Pentanitride for Visible-Light Driven Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting

The forecasted global energy crisis
¹
is a serious and urgent problem that needs to be solved with the highest priority. While nuclear fusion has been widely touted as the holy grail
²
of clean, sustainable energy, the little advances
³
since the 1940s has been few and far in between, despite the tremendous efforts and funding that has been put into it. A more feasible alternative clean energy resource has thus been postulated, which involves harvesting the abundant solar energy that irradiates the Earth every second. One way to harvest this energy resource without needing to utilize it immediately nor cause any further environmental damage in its harvesting or usage, is to directly use the solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen
⁴
. Since 1972, scientists all over the world has been researching materials that can achieve this and one such compound have been identified as tritantalum penta-nitride (Ta
3
N
5
)
⁵
. Herein, we present a TRIM (TRansport of Ions in Matter) simulation of the synthesis of Ta
3
N
5
based on Monte Carlo calculations. The phase and nanostructure of the photocatalyst resulting from this plasma-based synthesis is presented as well. Finally, the experimental results of the synthesis as suggested by the simulation is presented, along with its characterization and photocatalytic performance in overall water splitting.