Issue 48, 2022, Issue in Progress

Boosting the photocatalytic performance of Cu2O for hydrogen generation by Au nanostructures and rGO nanosheets

Abstract

As a narrow band-gap semiconductor, cuprous oxide (Cu2O) has a relatively high conduction band that can exhibit high driving force for the photocatalytic generation of hydrogen under visible light. Besides, its adjustable morphologies and abundant source also make it possible to be employed as a theoretically optimal photocatalyst. However, the low charge migration and poor stability commonly limit its practical application, and various strategies have been explored in previous studies. In this study, we have novelly utilized Au nanorod (NR) and nanobipyramid (NBP) nanocrystallites as well as rGO nanosheets to boost the photocatalytic activity of Cu2O over hydrogen generation. The ternary rGO wrapped Au@Cu2O with a yolk–shelled structure (y-Au@Cu2O/rGO) was synthesized by a handy and controllable method. When excited by solar light (λ > 400 nm), it was found that the H2 yields of Cu2O/rGO, y-Au nanoparticle@Cu2O/rGO, y-Au NR@Cu2O/rGO, and y-Au NBP@Cu2O/rGO were increased in the order of 248, 702, 1582 and 1894 μmol g−1 in 4 h. The outstanding photocatalytic performances of y-Au NR@Cu2O/rGO and y-Au NBP@Cu2O/rGO could be attributed to the combination function of quick electron transfer of rGO and abundant near-infrared-light-driven hot carriers on Au NRs and NBPs that could inject into Cu2O and then a quick transfer to rGO to participate in H2 reduction. Besides the above results, it was also found that Cu2O maintained good stability after several cycling photocatalysis tests, which could be ascribed to the migration of holes from Cu2O to Au that prevented the photooxidation of Cu2O. This study may give a guide to fabricating controllable and effective photocatalysts based on plasmonic metals, semiconductors, or two-dimensional nanosheets, which possess full-solar-light-driven photocatalytic activities in the future.

Graphical abstract: Boosting the photocatalytic performance of Cu2O for hydrogen generation by Au nanostructures and rGO nanosheets

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jul 2022
Accepted
30 Sep 2022
First published
02 Nov 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2022,12, 31415-31423

Boosting the photocatalytic performance of Cu2O for hydrogen generation by Au nanostructures and rGO nanosheets

Y. Ma, X. Wei, K. Aishanjiang, Y. Fu, J. Le and H. Wu, RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 31415 DOI: 10.1039/D2RA04132D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements