Spintronic hydrogen evolution induced by surface plasmon of silver nanoparticles loaded on Fe- and Co-doped ZnO nanorods

Abstract

With the increasing demand for sustainable energy, hydrogen as a recyclable and green energy resource has drawn a lot of attention. Optical spintronics, combining the spin and charge of photoelectrons, distinguishes itself as the most powerful and promising technology for hydrogen production through implementing surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in spintronic transport. A spintronic-photoelectrochemical (SPEC) hydrogen evolution device, utilizing a coating of silver nanoparticles (NPs) onto TM:ZnO (TM: Fe, Co) nanorods (NRs), demonstrates energy transfer due to the generation of spintronic surface plasmon resonance under circularly polarized light of coherent ħ/−ħ radiation. The spin injection emerges in semiconductors through optical and electrical paths to modulate the process of spintronic transport across the interface. The evolution efficiency of the SPEC hydrogen and its corresponding maximum production of hydrogen successfully rise to as high as 174.46% and 1.70 × 10⁻³ L s⁻¹ m⁻², respectively, by exploiting spintronic SPR energy transfer. However, the spintronics can impede the SPR hot electron transfer and display a quantum entanglement of the two qubits during spin–plasmon–electron interactions when attempting to increase the evolution efficiency of the SPEC hydrogen. Herein, we report the design of an unprecedented approach to realize the utilization of strong spin–plasmon–electron interactions and we have applied these techniques to yield a state-of-the-art device to bring spintronics into reality.