Significant enhancement of photocatalytic water splitting enabled by elimination of surface traps in Pt-tipped CdSe nanorods

Abstract

Pt-tipped CdSe nanorods epitaxially passivated with atomic-level CdS shells have been synthesized and have significantly improved the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution efficiency by 6.5 times. The enhancement is due to the effective elimination of surface defects/trap states in the CdSe nanorods, thereby minimizing exciton recombination and maximizing the charge separation efficiency.