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

Abstract

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 H₂ production and recycle stability. Our experimental results and theoretical calculation have indicated that the highly improved photocatalytic H₂ 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.