Surfactant assisted hydrothermal synthesis of NaTaO3 nanotubes for efficient photodegradation of organic pollutants

The morphology of photocatalysts plays an important role in their photocatalytic activity. Here, a novel sodium tantalum trioxide (NaTaO3) nanotube photocatalyst was hydrothermally synthesised with the assistant of Na dodecyl sulphate (SDS) surfactant. The as-synthesised NaTaO3 nanotubes presented an enhanced light absorption, compared with NaTaO3 nanocubes prepared without the addition of SDS. By using rhodamine B (RhB) as organic pollutants model, the NaTaO3 nanotubes exhibited a 96.2% of photodegradation ratio after 80 min ultraviolet light irradiation, which was much higher than NaTaO3 nanocubes and commercial P25. The cycle degradation results revealed that NaTaO3 nanotubes had an excellent photochemical stability. The active species trapping experiment suggested that the dominating active species were hydroxyl radicals and superoxide radicals, rather than holes.