Issue 4, 2020

Cu-Deficient plasmonic Cu2−xS nanocrystals induced tunable photocatalytic activities

Abstract

Copper sulfide (Cu2−xS) is a kind of cation deficient transition metal sulfide, which has attracted great interest due to its unique properties that arise from degenerate vacancy-doping, particularly its tunable localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties. In this work, a range of vacancy-doped Cu2−xS nanocrystals (NCs) (Cu1.2S, Cu1.4S, Cu1.75S, and Cu1.94S NCs) with a size of around 10 nm was prepared with tunable LSPR through a hot injection method. The doping level was manipulated effectively by varying the injection volume of sulfur powder–oleic acid (S–OA) to finely tune the LSPR wavelength. Cu2−xS NCs with four different doping levels were investigated as photocatalysts for degradation of dyes. The Cu1.94S NCs with the highest LSPR energy exhibited the best photocatalytic activity due to the highest free carrier density, presumably influenced by Cu vacancies and the volume of the S–OA solution. Theoretical calculations of the free carrier density of Cu2−xS NCs are consistent with the order of the photocatalytic activity. The results demonstrate that the correlation of the photocatalytic activity with the corresponding concentration of free holes and the LSPR wavelength is of interest, which will provide inspiration for the design of non-noble metal catalysts by regulating the free hole concentration in degenerate p-doped Cu2−xS caused by cation vacancies.

Graphical abstract: Cu-Deficient plasmonic Cu2−xS nanocrystals induced tunable photocatalytic activities

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 sep 2019
Accepted
28 nov 2019
First published
30 nov 2019

CrystEngComm, 2020,22, 678-685

Cu-Deficient plasmonic Cu2−xS nanocrystals induced tunable photocatalytic activities

X. Shao, T. Zhang, B. Li, Y. Wu, X. Ma, J. Wang and S. Jiang, CrystEngComm, 2020, 22, 678 DOI: 10.1039/C9CE01501A

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