Abstract
Yellow LaBa2Ta5O13N2 was successfully synthesized as phase-pure material crystallizing isostructurally to previously reported Ba3Ta5O14N and mixed-valence Ba3TaV4TaIVO15. The electronic structure of LaBa2Ta5O13N2 was studied theoretically with the range-separated hybrid method HSE06. The most stable structure was obtained when lanthanum was placed on 2a and nitrogen on 4h sites confirming Pauling's second rule. By incorporating nitrogen, the measured band gap decreases from ∼3.8eV for the oxide via 2.74eV for Ba3Ta5O14N to 2.63eV for the new oxide nitride, giving rise to an absorption band well in the visible-light region. Calculated fundamental band gaps confirm the experimental trend. The atom-projected density of states has large contributions from N2p orbitals close to the valence band edge. These are responsible for the observed band gap reduction. Photocatalytic hydrogen formation was investigated and compared with that of Ba3Ta5O14N revealing significantly higher activity for LaBa2Ta5O13N2 under UV-light.
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