Controlled deposition of covalently bonded tantalum oxide on carbon supports by solvent evaporation sol–gel process

A simple strategy for covalently attaching Ta2O5 particles onto functionalized graphitic carbon supports has been developed to fabricate hybrid nanocomposites. In this process, tantalum ethoxide was directly reacted with functional groups on the carbon surface to form covalent bonding, which caused the carbonyl stretches of the carbon supports to be blue-shifted to 50-70 cm-1 after Ta2O5 particle deposition. Homogeneously distributed Ta2O5 particles with smaller than 100 nm have been homogeneously deposited on the carbon supports. X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been used to study the formation of Ta2O5/C hybrid structure.