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Ligand‐Assisted Co‐Assembly Approach toward Mesoporous Hybrid Catalysts of Transition‐Metal Oxides and Noble Metals: Photochemical Water Splitting
Author(s) -
Liu Ben,
Kuo ChungHao,
Chen Jiejie,
Luo Zhu,
Thanneeru Srinivas,
Li Weikun,
Song Wenqiao,
Biswas Sourav,
Suib Steven L.,
He Jie
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201502892
Subject(s) - noble metal , materials science , mesoporous material , transition metal , catalysis , nanoparticle , photocatalysis , metal , water splitting , nanotechnology , ligand (biochemistry) , oxide , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , receptor , engineering , metallurgy
A bottom‐up synthetic approach was developed for the preparation of mesoporous transition‐metal‐oxide/noble‐metal hybrid catalysts through ligand‐assisted co‐assembly of amphiphilic block‐copolymer micelles and polymer‐tethered noble‐metal nanoparticles (NPs). The synthetic approach offers a general and straightforward method to precisely tune the sizes and loadings of noble‐metal NPs in metal oxides. This system thus provides a solid platform to clearly understand the role of noble‐metal NPs in photochemical water splitting. The presence of trace amounts of metal NPs (≈0.1 wt %) can enhance the photocatalytic activity for water splitting up to a factor of four. The findings can conceivably be applied to other semiconductors/noble‐metal catalysts, which may stand out as a new methodology to build highly efficient solar energy conversion systems.