• Salminen, Turkka
• Valden, Mika
• Ali-Löytty, Harri
• Bhuskute, Bela
• Honkanen, Mari Hetti

Abstract

Harnessing entire solar spectrum and converting it into useful solar fuels are the key steps in overcoming the global energy demand. Here, an attempt is made to utilize the visible light photons for photocatalytic hydrogen production by deposition of plasmonic nanostructures on TiO2 (P25). Surface plasmon resonance property of these metallic nanoparticles essentially increases the visible light absorption in different region of solar spectrum [1, 2]. Deposition of plasmonic metal nanoparticles on TiO2 (P25) introduces extra energy levels in the bandgap of semiconductor and enhances excellent electrical and unique optical properties [3, 4]. <br/><br/>In this present work, the optimization of Ag and Au photodeposition parameters is employed to obtain better solar to hydrogen efficiency compared to TiO2 (P25) nanoparticles. The results show that the metal deposition order predominantly affects the H2 evolution reaction. The bimetallic nanoparticles with Ag@Au/TiO2 (P25) show the best photocatalytic efficiency compared to monometallic TiO2 and Au@Ag/TiO2 (P25). The highest hydrogen production rate of 0.25 µmol/h is achieved with Ag@Au/TiO2 (P25) with 40 min photodeposition of gold and 20 min photodeposition of silver on TiO2 nanoparticle surface.<br/><br/>References:<br/>1) Tian, Y., &amp; Tatsuma, T. (2004). Plasmon-induced photoelectrochemistry at metal nanoparticles supported on nanoporous TiO 2, 1810–1811.<br/>2) Tanaka, A., Sakaguchi, S., Hashimoto, K., &amp; Kominami, H. (2012). Preparation of Au / TiO 2 with Metal Cocatalysts Exhibiting Strong Surface Plasmon Resonance Effective for Photoinduced Hydrogen Formation under Irradiation of Visible Light. https://doi.org/10.1021/cs3006499<br/>3) Hirakawa, T., Kamat, P. V, Uni, V., &amp; Dame, N. (2005). Charge Separation and Catalytic Activity of Ag @ TiO 2 Core - Shell Composite Clusters under UV - Irradiation, (37), 3928–3934. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja042925a<br/>4) Zhou, N., Polavarapu, L., Gao, N., Pan, Y., Yuan, P., &amp; Xu, Q. (2013). TiO2 coated Au/Ag nanorods with enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation †. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3nr00517h<br/><br/><br/>

Topics

• nanoparticle
• Deposition
• nanocomposite
• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• cluster
• silver
• semiconductor
• gold
• Hydrogen