Issue 42, 2022

Crystallographic interface control of the plasmonic photocatalyst consisting of gold nanoparticles and titanium(iv) oxide

Abstract

A big question in the field of plasmonic photocatalysis is why a typical photocatalyst consisting of gold nanoparticles and rutile titanium(IV) oxide (Au/R-TiO2) usually exhibits activity much higher than that of Au/anatase TiO2 (Au/A-TiO2) under visible-light irradiation. Shedding light on the origin should present important guidelines for the material design of plasmonic photocatalysts. Au nanoparticles (NPs) were loaded on ordinary irregular-shaped TiO2 particles by the conventional deposition precipitation method. Transmission electron microscopy analyses for the Au/TiO2 particles ascertain that faceting of Au NPs is induced on R-TiO2 by using a domain-matching epitaxial junction with the orientation of (111)Au//(110)R-TiO2, whereas non-faceted hemispherical Au NPs are exclusively formed on A-TiO2. The faceting probability of Au NPs (Pf) on R-TiO2 increases with decreasing Au particle size (dAu) to reach 14% at dAu = 3.6 nm. A clear positive correlation between the photocatalytic activity and Pf in several test reactions indicates that the heteroepitaxial junction-induced faceting of Au NPs is the principal factor for governing the plasmonic photocatalytic activity of Au/TiO2. In light of this finding, R-TiO2 nanorods with a high percentage (95%) of {110} facets were hydrothermally synthesized and used for the support of Au NPs. Consequently, the Pf value increases to as much as 94% to enhance the photocatalytic activity with respect to that of Au/R-TiO2 with Pf = 14% by factors of 2.2–4.4 depending on the type of reaction.

Graphical abstract: Crystallographic interface control of the plasmonic photocatalyst consisting of gold nanoparticles and titanium(iv) oxide

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
25 Jun 2022
Accepted
13 Oct 2022
First published
14 Oct 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 12340-12347

Crystallographic interface control of the plasmonic photocatalyst consisting of gold nanoparticles and titanium(IV) oxide

S. Naya, A. Akita, Y. Morita, M. Fujishima and H. Tada, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 12340 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC03549A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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