Enhanced Photoelectrocatalytic Activity of Methanol Oxidation on TiO2-Decorated Nanoporous Gold

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• 作者：Chuancheng Jia ; Huiming Yin ; Houyi Ma ; Rongyue Wang ; Xingbo Ge ; Aiqiu Zhou ; Xiaohong Xu ; Yi Ding
• 刊名：Journal of Physical Chemistry C
• 出版年：2009
• 出版时间：September 10, 2009
• 年：2009
• 卷：113
• 期：36
• 页码：16138-16143
• 全文大小：265K
• 年卷期：v.113,no.36(September 10, 2009)
• ISSN：1932-7455

文摘

Au−TiO₂ nanocomposites have been widely investigated for their potential applications in solar energy conversion, CO oxidation, and methanol reforming reactions. In this study, commercial TiO₂ nanoparticles were assembled on the surface of nanoporous gold (NPG) to fabricate novel TiO₂/NPG nanocomposite electrodes. Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical techniques were used to investigate the characteristics of the electrodes. Large photocurrent and nearly reversible voltammetric responses were observed for methanol photoelectrocatalysis under UV radiation, indicating an effective elimination of gold surface passivation due to a pronounced synergistic effect between TiO₂ and NPG. A possible mechanism was proposed to elucidate such a synergistic effect, which is based on the reaction of the photogenerated reactive intermediates on the surface of NPG. Kinetic studies showed that the coupling of TiO₂ with NPG in our system could lead to about a 30% decrease of apparent activation energy for methanol electrooxidation.