Enhanced Photocatalytic Water Splitting by Plasmonic TiO2鈥揊e2O3 Cocatalyst under Visible Light Irradiation

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• 作者：Wei-Hsuan Hung ; Tzu-Ming Chien ; Chuan-Ming Tseng
• 刊名：Journal of Physical Chemistry C
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：June 19, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：118
• 期：24
• 页码：12676-12681
• 全文大小：440K
• 年卷期：v.118,no.24(June 19, 2014)
• ISSN：1932-7455

文摘

In this study, we introduce a plasmonic TiO₂鈥揊e₂O₃ cocatalyst photoelectrode to improve the water-splitting process. The absorption of incident photons and the separation rate of photogenerated electron鈥揾ole pairs are enhanced due to the broadband absorption and strong electric field of the composite formed from these two metal oxide semiconductors and plasmonic silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). Plasmonic TiO₂鈥揊e₂O₃ cocatalyst photoelectrodes were fabricated using a precipitation and solution processing method. Under visible light irradiation, a photocurrent that is 20 times higher than that of pure Fe₂O₃ was observed using an optimized ratio of the plasmonic TiO₂鈥揊e₂O₃/Ag cocatalyst. The mechanism for this enhancement in the plasmonic cocatalyst system was investigated using different structural configurations of the photoelectrode. Both the crystallinity and absorption band edge of the TiO₂鈥揊e₂O₃ cocatalyst were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and ultraviolet鈥搗isible absorption spectroscopy (UV鈥搗is). Furthermore, the spatial distribution of the photocurrent was investigated using this plasmonic cocatalyst system.