Insightful understanding of hot-carrier generation and transfer in plasmonic Au@CeO2 core–shell photocatalysts for light-driven hydrogen evolution improvement

Dung Van Dao, Thuy T.D. Nguyen, Periyayya Uthirakumar, Yeong Hoon Cho, Gyu Cheol Kim, Jin Kyu Yang, Duy Thanh Tran, Thanh Duc Le, Hyuk Choi, Hyun You Kim, Yeon Tae Yu, In Hwan Lee

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    66 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Plasmonic metal@semiconductor core–shell nanoparticles (CSNPs) are considered as promising candidates for artificial photosynthesis. Herein, Au@CeO2 CSNPs are hydrothermally fabricated for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). CSNPs deliver superior HER performance compared to free CeO2. In particular, Au@CeO2-18 model (shell thickness of 18 nm) produces an HER rate of 4.05 μmol mg–1 h–1, which is ∼10 times higher than that of pure CeO2 (0.40 μmol mg–1 h–1) under visible-light. Additionally, Au@CeO2-18 photocatalyst demonstrates long-term stability after five repetitive runs, at which point it only loses approximately 5% of the activity, while core-free CeO2 decreases by 37.5 %. Such improvements are attributed to the electronic interactions between Au and CeO2, which not only enriches Ce3+ active sites to narrow bandgap of ceria toward visible, but also increases the affinity for hydrogen ions on the CSNPs surface. Moreover, localized surface plasmon resonance is light-excited and decays to efficiently produce hot-carrier to drive catalytic reactions.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number119947
    JournalApplied Catalysis B: Environmental
    Volume286
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021 Jun 5

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

    Keywords

    • Au@CeOcore–shell
    • Hot-carrier
    • Hydrogen production
    • Photocatalyst
    • Plasmonic

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Catalysis
    • General Environmental Science
    • Process Chemistry and Technology

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