A facile fabrication of hierarchical Ag nanoparticles-decorated N-TiO2 with enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production under solar light

作者：Yang, Siyuan; Wang, Hongjuan; Yu, Hao; Zhang, Shengsen; Fang, Yueping; Zhang, Shanqing; Peng, Feng^*

来源：International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2016, 41(5): 3446-3455.

DOI：10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.12.190

• Photocatalyst
• Hydrogen production
• Titanium dioxide
• Ag nanoparticle
• Ethanol splitting
• Hierarchical structure

The hierarchical Ag NPs with a bimodal size distribution were auto-decorated on the surface of rice-like N-TiO2 (named h-Ag/N-TiO2) by semiconductor-metal double excitation process under solar light irradiation. The photoinduced growth process of self-assembled h-Ag/N-TiO2 and its photocatalytic mechanism of photo-splitting ethanol into hydrogen have been discussed in detail. The synthesized h-Ag/N-TiO2 as a plasmonic photocatalyst for photo-splitting ethanol exhibited a higher hydrogen production rate (4.7 mmol h(-1) g(-1)) than Ag NPs universally loaded N-TiO2 (3.4 mmol h(-1) g(-1)) and pure N-TiO2 (2.1 mmol h(-1) g(-1)). This work presents a reversed photo-induced synthesis strategy to design a stable Ag-TiO2 plasmonic photocatalyst with high photocatalytic efficiency under solar light. A better understanding of this solar light induced self-assembled process for Ag-TiO2 is crucial in developing metal-semiconductor system for solar energy materials.

• 出版日期2016-2-9
• 单位华南理工大学; 华南农业大学