Photocatalytic degradation of an azo dye using N-doped NaTaO3 synthesized by one-step hydrothermal process

N-doped NaTaO₃ compounds (NaTaO_3−xN_x) with nano-cubic morphology were successfully synthesized by one-step hydrothermal method and Methyl Orange (MO) was used as a model dye to evaluate their photocatalytic efficiency under visible-light irradiation. The as-prepared NaTaO_3−xN_x samples were characterized by various techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra and GC-MS. The results indicate that NaTaO_3−xN_x displays a pure perovskite structure when the synthesis temperature is higher than 180 °C. Moreover, as observed by SEM images, the particles of resultant NaTaO_3−xN_x show cubic morphology with the edge length of 200-500 nm, which can be easily removed by filtration after photocatalytic reaction. Doping of N increases the photocatalytic activity of NaTaO₃, and NaTaO_2.953N_0.047 shows the highest visible-light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of MO. Based on the experiment results, a possible mechanism of the photocatalysis over NaTaO_3−xN_x and the photodegradation pathway of MO were proposed.