Premium
Probing Long‐Lived Plasmonic‐Generated Charges in TiO 2 /Au by High‐Resolution X‐ray Absorption Spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Amidani Lucia,
Naldoni Alberto,
Malvestuto Marco,
Marelli Marcello,
Glatzel Pieter,
Dal Santo Vladimiro,
Boscherini Federico
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201412030
Subject(s) - spectroscopy , x ray absorption spectroscopy , absorption spectroscopy , plasmon , materials science , surface plasmon resonance , absorption (acoustics) , semiconductor , nanoparticle , electronic structure , surface plasmon , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , scattering , optoelectronics , photochemistry , nanotechnology , chemistry , optics , nuclear magnetic resonance , physics , computational chemistry , quantum mechanics , composite material
Exploiting plasmonic Au nanoparticles to sensitize TiO 2 to visible light is a widely employed route to produce efficient photocatalysts. However, a description of the atomic and electronic structure of the semiconductor sites in which charges are injected is still not available. Such a description is of great importance in understanding the underlying physical mechanisms and to improve the design of catalysts with enhanced photoactivity. We investigated changes in the local electronic structure of Ti in pure and N‐doped nanostructured TiO 2 loaded with Au nanoparticles during continuous selective excitation of the Au localized surface plasmon resonance with X‐ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and resonant inelastic X‐ray scattering (RIXS). Spectral variations strongly support the presence of long‐lived charges localized on Ti states at the semiconductor surface, giving rise to new laser‐induced low‐coordinated Ti sites.