The Ag2O/TiO2 catalyst produces hydrogen with water and water/methanol mixture when irradiated with IR light. In this report, material aspects and the photocatalytic mechanism of the IR active photocatalyst Ag2O/TiO2 for water splitting reaction were investigated. The Ag2O/TiO2 catalyst contained 28% of silver and 72% titanium by w/w and XPS and XRD results revealed the presence of Ag2O(Ag + ), Ag o , TiO2(Ti 4+ ) and Ti 3+ states in Ag2O/TiO2 catalyst. A solid proof for the IR photon initiated catalytic activity of Ag2O/TiO2 catalyst was observed from the clear enhanced IR response in the incident photon current conversion efficiency measurements of the Ag2O/TiO2 catalyst. Considering the band gap energies to the energy of the IR source, Plasmon assisted photocatalytic activity and/or a sub-band gap phonon-assisted multi-photon excitation mechanisms are proposed for the observed infrared photocatalytic activity of Ag2O/TiO2 photocatalyst and functions of Ag2O and TiO2 in "dark photocatalysis" are discussed.

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Nanodiamond glass is an amorphous solid consisting of nanodiamond as a nanoparticle. The several-nm-space between the nanodiamonds is filled with a medium that reversibly deforms and recovers. Hence, nanodiamonds linked in the medium are arranged in several-nm intervals. To prepare the nanodiamond glass, nanodiamonds are dispersed as inorganic nanoparticles with highly reactive functional groups into natural rubber as an incompressible medium exhibiting reversible deformation and recovery. Nanodiamond glass can be distinguished from nanodiamond-filled rubber, which exhibits ordinary entropic elasticity. Natural rubber particles dispersed in water (i.e., latex) are used to prepare nanodiamond glass, chemically embed nanodiamonds onto the surface of the natural rubber particles, and subsequently attach the surfaces together to achieve close packing of the nanodiamonds. Increasing the modulus of natural rubber constrained in the nanospaces ensures the energetic elasticity of nanodiamond glass. This work demonstrates that nanodiamond glass with energetic elasticity is a new research field.