High-Surface-Area Sodium Tantalate Nanoparticles with Enhanced Photocatalytic and Electrical Properties Prepared through Polymeric Citrate Precursor Route

NaTaO₃ nanoparticles with a high surface area of 46.2 m²/g have been successfully synthesized using a polymeric citrate precursor route. As-prepared nanoparticles were extensively characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, transmission emission microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy studies for the analysis of phase purity, crystallinity, and morphology. NaTaO₃ nanoparticles show efficient photo-induced removal of the methylene blue dye under sunlight, which were confirmed by using liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy. 86% dye has been degraded in 200 min at neutral pH, whereas the same amount of dye was decolorized in only 80 min at alkaline pH. Also, the dielectric behavior of the as-prepared nanoparticles at different annealing temperatures was explained by the Maxwell-Wagner polarization mechanism. At 500, 600, and 700 °C annealing temperatures, the dielectric constant and dielectric loss at 500 kHz for the samples were found to be 21.5, 18, and 16 and 0.012, 0.022, and 0.029, respectively. The unsaturated hysteresis loop shows weak ferroelectric behavior of NaTaO₃ nanoparticles with remanent and saturation polarizations of 0.0013 and 0.21 μC/cm², respectively, and S-E hysteresis shows a bipolar strain of 0.10%.