Facile surfactant-aided sol–gel synthesis of mesoporous-assembled Ta2O5 nanoparticles with enhanced photocatalytic H2 production

This work was mainly focused on the investigation of thermal treatment impact of the mesoporous-assembled Ta2O5 nanoparticles synthesized via a facile sol–gel method with the aid of a mesopore-directing surfactant on their photocatalytic hydrogen production activity from a methanol aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. The synthesized Ta2O5 nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption–desorption analysis, elemental...