Multiple synergistic effects of Zr-alloying on the phase stability and photostability of black niobium oxide nanotubes as efficient photoelectrodes for solar hydrogen production

Niobium oxides exist in a plethora of metastable, stoichiometric, nonstoichiometric, and mixed phases, rendering the Nb-O systems very complicated and hard to study. These structures significantly differ in their catalytic activity, electrical conductivity, and photoresponse. Herein, we demonstrate the ability to selectively fabricate pure T-Nb2O5 via the addition of small amount of Zr as a phase stabilizer. Moreover, we were able to tune the...