Plasmonic enhancement of photocatalytic decomposition of methyl orange under visible light |
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| Authors: | Wenbo Hou Zuwei Liu Prathamesh Pavaskar Wei Hsuan Hung Stephen B Cronin |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;2. Department of Physics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;3. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;4. Department of Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;1. State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China;2. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China;1. Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Park Road, 44000 Islamabad, Pakistan;2. Department of Material Science and Engineering, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan;1. Department of Chemistry, Yasouj University, Yasouj 75918-74831, Iran;2. Department of Chemistry, Gachsaran Branch, Islamic Azad University, P.O. Box 75818-63876, Gachsaran, Iran;1. College of Materials, MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China;2. Department of Physics, Research Institute for Biomimetics and Soft Matter, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China;1. Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology, Department of Chemistry, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA;2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China;3. Key Laboratory of Process Heat Transfer and Energy Saving of Henan Province, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, China;4. Department of Physics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China;1. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China;2. CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Guangzhou, 510640, China;3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New and Renewable Energy Research and Development, Guangzhou, 510640, China;4. Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China |
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| Abstract: | By integrating strongly plasmonic Au nanoparticles with strongly catalytic TiO2, we observe enhanced photocatalytic decomposition of methyl orange under visible illumination. Irradiating Au nanoparticles at their plasmon resonance frequency creates intense electric fields, which can be used to increase electron–hole pair generation rate in semiconductors. As a result, the photocatalytic activity of large bandgap semiconductors, like TiO2, can be extended into the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Here, we report a 9-fold improvement in the photocatalytic decomposition rate of methyl orange driven by a photocatalyst consisting of strongly plasmonic Au nanoparticles deposited on top of strongly catalytic TiO2. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations indicate that the improvement in photocatalytic activity in the visible range can be attributed to the electric field enhancement near the metal nanoparticles. The intense local fields produced by the surface plasmons couple light efficiently to the surface of the TiO2. This enhancement mechanism is particularly effective because of TiO2’s short exciton diffusion length, which would otherwise limit its photocatalytic efficiency. Our electromagnetic simulations of this process suggest that enhancement factors many times larger than this are possible if this mechanism can be optimized. |
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