TY - JOUR A1 - Lange, M. A. A1 - Khan, I. A1 - Dören, R. A1 - Ashraf, M. A1 - Qurashi, A. A1 - Prädel, L. A1 - Panthöfer, M. A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Cossmer, Antje A1 - Pfeifer, Jens A1 - Meermann, Björn A1 - Mondeshki, M. A1 - Tahir, M. N. A1 - Tremel, W. T1 - High-speed solid state fluorination of Nb2O5 yields NbO2F and Nb3O7F with photocatalytic activity for oxygen evolution from water JF - Dalton Transactions N2 - Solid state reactions are slow because the diffusion of atoms or ions through the reactant, intermediate and crystalline product phases is the rate-limiting step. This requires days or even weeks of high temperature treatment, and consumption of large amounts of energy. We employed spark-plasma sintering, an engineering technique that is used for high-speed consolidation of powders with a pulsed Electric current passing through the sample to carry out the fluorination of niobium oxide in minute intervals. The approach saves time and large amounts of waste energy. Moreover, it allows the preparation of fluorinated niobium oxides on a gram scale using poly (tetrafluoroethylene) (®Teflon) scrap and without toxic chemicals. The synthesis can be upscaled easily to the kg range with appropriate sintering equipment. Finally, NbO2F and Nb3O7F prepared by spark plasma sintering show significant photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) oxygen evolution from water in terms of photocurrent density and incident photon-to-current Efficiency (% IPCE), whereas NbO2F and Nb3O7F prepared by conventional high temperature chemistry show little to no PEC response. Our study is a proof of concept for the quick, clean and energy saving production of valuable photocatalysts from plastic waste. KW - Fluorination KW - Nb2O5, NbO2F, Nb3O7F KW - Photocatalytic activity PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1dt00533b VL - 50 IS - 19 SP - 6528 EP - 6538 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-52439 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -