TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhancing hot electron generation and injection with plasmonic nanostructures
AU - Wang, Xi
AU - Yao, Kaili
AU - Liu, Lihua
AU - Liu, Changxu
AU - Liang, Hongyan
N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC No. 51771132). Hongyan Liang was the primary funder. (China, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6623-6946)
PY - 2022/2/10
Y1 - 2022/2/10
N2 - Constructing plasmonic-semiconductor nanoarchitecture provides a photocatalytic platform for enhancing solar energy conversion. The excitation and extraction of energetic carriers are critical for improving energy efficiency, which can be affected by the geometric features of plasmonic structures. An extensive study on morphology dependent hot electron utilization is desirable but challenging. In this paper, we applied photocurrent response from the microscale reaction region on Au-TiO2 photoanode to evaluate the influence of plasmonic morphology in water splitting. We compared the photocurrent of two structures, gold nanospheres and nanorods, under visible illumination. We experimentally proved that the nanorods demonstrate better energy performance. The possible origins of this enhancement are ascribed to the sharp curvature at tips, where strong hot spots boost the generation and injection efficiency of hot electrons. These results may pave a way for a rational geometry design for plasmonic enhanced photocatalysis.
AB - Constructing plasmonic-semiconductor nanoarchitecture provides a photocatalytic platform for enhancing solar energy conversion. The excitation and extraction of energetic carriers are critical for improving energy efficiency, which can be affected by the geometric features of plasmonic structures. An extensive study on morphology dependent hot electron utilization is desirable but challenging. In this paper, we applied photocurrent response from the microscale reaction region on Au-TiO2 photoanode to evaluate the influence of plasmonic morphology in water splitting. We compared the photocurrent of two structures, gold nanospheres and nanorods, under visible illumination. We experimentally proved that the nanorods demonstrate better energy performance. The possible origins of this enhancement are ascribed to the sharp curvature at tips, where strong hot spots boost the generation and injection efficiency of hot electrons. These results may pave a way for a rational geometry design for plasmonic enhanced photocatalysis.
KW - Au-TiO
KW - Hot electron generation and injection
KW - Photocatalysis
KW - Surface plasmons
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117069310&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.162214
DO - 10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.162214
M3 - Article
VL - 893
JO - Journal of Alloys and Compounds
JF - Journal of Alloys and Compounds
SN - 0925-8388
IS - 10
M1 - 162214
ER -