Photocatalytic Enhancements to the Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol by Resonantly Excited Triangular Gold鈥揅opper Nanostructures

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• 作者：Maryam Hajfathalian ; Kyle D. Gilroy ; Ali Yaghoubzade ; Aarthi Sundar ; Teng Tan ; Robert A. Hughes ; Svetlana Neretina
• 刊名：Journal of Physical Chemistry C
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：July 30, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：119
• 期：30
• 页码：17308-17315
• 全文大小：483K
• ISSN：1932-7455

文摘

The reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol by sodium borohydride serves as a well-established model reaction for assessing the catalytic activity of metal nanoparticles. While many of the studied nanoparticles are plasmonic in nature, there is little understanding of whether significant photocatalytic enhancements to the reaction rate are achievable. Here, we assess the catalytic and photocatalytic properties of highly faceted, substrate-immobilized nanoprism-like AuCu structures synthesized using a vapor phase templated-assembly technique. The so-formed structures have a bimetallic composition which is well-recognized for its catalytic capabilities as well as a strong localized surface plasmon resonance in the visible spectrum which gives rise to enhanced near-fields at the tips of the triangle. Using a dip catalyst modality, the structures are demonstrated as heterogeneous photocatalysts with a 32-fold enhancement to the reaction rate constant when resonantly illuminated with 10 mW/cm² laser light. The study demonstrates the potential of such structures as photocatalysts and validates the reduction of 4-nitrophenol as a reaction useful in assessing the photocatalytic capabilities of plasmonic nanostructures.