Surface step decoration of isolated atom as electron pumping: Atomic-level insights into visible-light hydrogen evolution

Xin Wu, Huabin Zhang, Juncai Dong, Mei Qiu, Jintao Kong, Yongfan Zhang, Yang Li, Guilan Xu, Jian Zhang, Jinhua Ye

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

130 Scopus citations

Abstract

Here we realize the decoration of isolated platinum atoms onto the surface step of CdS nanowires. The single-atom co-catalyst with high stability can realize maximum atom efficiency and significantly boost electron-hole separation efficiency in chromophore units, generating a greatly enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance, 7.69 times as high as Pt nanoparticles do and 63.77 times higher than that of bare CdS nanowires. Directional migrations of photogenerated excitons from the conduction band of CdS to catalytic platinum centers have been witnessed by transient absorption spectroscopy, leading to the supply of long-lived electrons for highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Density functional theory calculations further confirm that the excellent catalytic performance is associated with positively charged platinum sites with partially vacant 5d orbitals, which change distribution of charge density and facilitate higher excited carrier density.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)109-117
Number of pages9
JournalNano Energy
Volume45
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Generated from Scopus record by KAUST IRTS on 2022-09-15

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • General Materials Science
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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