Gray Ta₂O₅ Nanowires with Greatly Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

Black TiO₂, with enhanced solar absorption and photocatalytic activity, has gained extensive attention, inspiring us to investigate the reduction of other wide-bandgap semiconductors for improved performance. Herein, we report the preparation of gray Ta₂O₅ nanowires with disordered shells and abundant defects via aluminum reduction. Its water decontamination is 2.5 times faster and hydrogen production is 2.3-fold higher over pristine Ta₂O₅. The reduced Ta₂O₅ also delivers significantly enhanced photoelectrochemical performance compared with the pristine Ta₂O₅ nanowires, including much higher carrier concentration, easier electron-hole separation and 11 times larger photocurrent. Our results demonstrate that Ta₂O₅ will have great potentials in photocatalysis and solar energy utilization after proper modification.