Prolonging the lifetimes of plasmonic hot electrons for efficient hydrogen evolution by Ag@N,O-C interfaces with a unique ginkgo-leaf hierarchical structure

The utilization of plasmonic Ag nanoparticles for harvesting solar energy to drive photocatalysis has attracted much attention. However, short lifetimes of plasmon derived charge carriers, poor chemical stability and easy-aggregation of Ag nanoparticles restrict their direct usage as photocatalysts....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2020-09, Vol.8 (34), p.17449-17453
Main Authors: Yang, Yun, Zhuang, Guilin, Sun, Liming, Zhang, Xibo, Yan, Xiaoqin, Zhan, Wenwen, Wang, Xiaojun, Han, Xiguang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon
Catalysis
Catalysts
Computer applications
Current carriers
Electron transfer
Energy harvesting
Fabrication
Hot electrons
Hydrogen evolution
Hydrogen production
Interfaces
Leaves
Nanoparticles
Photocatalysis
Plasmonics
Silver
Solar energy
Stability
Structural hierarchy
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Summary:The utilization of plasmonic Ag nanoparticles for harvesting solar energy to drive photocatalysis has attracted much attention. However, short lifetimes of plasmon derived charge carriers, poor chemical stability and easy-aggregation of Ag nanoparticles restrict their direct usage as photocatalysts. In this study, we report, for the first time, the fabrication of Ag nanoparticles fully coated with ultrathin layers of N, O-doped carbon, which were assembled to form a three-level hierarchical structure, i.e. a ginkgo-leaf-like structure (Ag@N,O-C GLLS). Due to the vital role of the N, O-doped carbon layer, the Ag@N/O-C GLLS exhibits excellent mass-normalized rate of H 2 production and recycle stability. Our experimental results and theoretical calculation have indicated that the highly improved photocatalytic H 2 evolution rate of the Ag@N/O-C GLLS should be attributed to the prolonged lifetimes of hot charge carriers by the full coating of the N,O-C layer, which provide a direct electron transfer path between Ag nanoparticles and the carbon layer. N,O-doped C layers fully-coated Ag nanoparticles have assembled to form into a three-level hierarchical structure, which have shown highly-improved photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen production reaction from water.
ISSN:2050-7488
2050-7496
DOI:10.1039/d0ta06308h