Surface Plasmon-Driven Water Reduction: Gold Nanoparticle Size Matters
- 27 June 2014
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Vol. 136 (28), 9842-9845
- https://doi.org/10.1021/ja504097v
Abstract
Water reduction under two different visible-light ranges (λ > 400 nm and λ > 435 nm) was investigated in gold-loaded titanium dioxide (Au-TiO2) heterostructures with different sizes of Au nanoparticles (NPs). Our study clearly demonstrates the essential role played by Au NP size in plasmon-driven H2O reduction and reveals two distinct mechanisms to clarify visible-light photocatalytic activity under different excitation conditions. The size of the Au NP governs the efficiency of plasmon-mediated electron transfer and plays a critical role in determining the reduction potentials of the electrons transferred to the TiO2 conduction band. Our discovery provides a facile method of manipulating photocatalytic activity simply by varying the Au NP size and is expected to greatly facilitate the design of suitable plasmonic photocatalysts for solar-to-fuel energy conversion.Keywords
Funding Information
- Basic Energy Sciences (DE-AC02-98CH10886)
- National Science Foundation (CHE- 1038015, CHE-1308644)
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