Abstract
Here, we demonstrate a new recreating photocatalytic activity of a Nano Au/Ta2O5 composite for hydrogen evolution from water as a visible-light-responsive plasmonic photocatalyst by embedding Au nanoparticles in a Ta2O5 host lattice. The Nano Au/Ta2O 5 composite samples were prepared through a simple Pechini-type sol-gel process. Further nitridating Nano Au/Ta2O5 composite samples in ammonia flow at 1123 K yielded Nano Au/Ta3N 5 composite samples. The obtained Nano Au/Ta3N5 composite exhibited a significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity in the visible region for hydrogen evolution from water compared with blank Ta 3N5 nanoparticles. UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra and photocatalytic activity measurements indicated that the excitation of surface plasmon resonance of Au nanoparticles is responsible for the new recreating photocatalytic activity of the Nano Au/Ta2O5 composite and significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity of the Nano Au/Ta3N5 composite for hydrogen evolution in the visible region, which might be ascribed to the charge transfer effect in Nano Au/Ta 2O5 composite and the synergetic effect of charge transfer and near-field electromagnetic effect in Nano Au/Ta3N5 composite induced by surface plasmon resonance of embedded Au nanoparticles. The current study could provide a new paradigm for designing plasmonic metal/semiconductor composite systems for photocatalytic, photovoltaic and other optoelectronic devices. © the Partner Organisations 2014.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 14927-14939 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of Materials Chemistry A |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 36 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Prof. Kazunari Domen (University of Tokyo, Japan) and Prof. Kazuhiro Takanabe (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia) for their fruitful comments. This project is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 21161015, 21165013), the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangxi Province of China (2009GZH0082), the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangxi Higher Education Institutions of China (GJJ09180, GJJ14513), the open fund of Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Persistent Pollutants Control and Resources Recycle, and Nanchang Hangkong University Doctoral Foundation.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.
