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Plasmonic Nickel–TiO 2 Heterostructures for Visible‐Light‐Driven Photochemical Reactions
Author(s) -
He Shuai,
Huang Jiawei,
Goodsell Justin L.,
Angerhofer Alexander,
Wei Wei David
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201901987
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , plasmon , photochemistry , heterojunction , materials science , nickel , methylene blue , visible spectrum , semiconductor , hot electron , electron transfer , optoelectronics , electron , noble metal , metal , catalysis , chemistry , physics , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
Plasmon‐mediated carrier transfer (PMCT) at metal–semiconductor heterojunctions has been extensively exploited to drive photochemical reactions, offering intriguing opportunities for solar photocatalysis. However, to date, most studies have been conducted using noble metals. Inexpensive materials capable of generating and transferring hot carriers for photocatalysis via PMCT have been rarely explored. Here, we demonstrate that the plasmon excitation of nickel induces the transfer of both hot electrons and holes from Ni to TiO 2 in a rationally designed Ni–TiO 2 heterostructure. Furthermore, it is discovered that the transferred hot electrons either occupy oxygen vacancies (V O ) or produce Ti 3+ on TiO 2 , while the transferred hot holes are located on surface oxygens at TiO 2 . Moreover, the transferred hot electrons are identified to play a primary role in driving the degradation of methylene blue (MB). Taken together, our results validate Ni as a promising low‐cost plasmonic material for prompting visible‐light photochemical reactions.