Fast and effective electron transport in a Au–graphene–ZnO hybrid for enhanced photocurrent and photocatalysis

Abstract

ARTICLE This journal isA novel ZnO nanosheets aggregated hollow sphere (nSAHS) has been hydrothermally synthesized. Wrapping Au/reduced graphene oxide (Au/rGO) onto ZnO nSAHS facilitates electron transfer at the ZnO interface. The photoinduced charge transfer of the Au/rGO/ZnO hybrid is characterized using photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL decay profile. The quenched PL emission of the Au/rGO/ZnO indicates decreased electron-hole pair recombination and facilitated electron transport resulting from a large surface area of ZnO nSAHS structure, good physical adsorption of Au/rGO onto ZnO, and excellent chemical interaction at the Au/rGO-ZnO interface. The Au/rGO/ZnO hybrid exhibits fast (4.46 ps) and effective (80.49%) charge transfer at hybrid interface, indicating that the Au/rGO/ZnO has better photocurrent responses and photocatalytic activities than the rGO/ZnO and ZnO.

Oxygen Vacancy-Mediated Interfacial Charge Transfer of Au/ZnO Schottky Heterojunctions for Enhanced UV Photodegradation

“…The NBE emission band located at 390 nm resulted from the direct radiative recombination of ZnO between CB and VB. Therefore, the raise of τ avg for Au/E-ZnO samples compared with International Journal of Photoenergy pristine E-ZnO, resulting from the e -CB injection excited by Au NPs; yet, the depression of τ avg for Au/R-ZnO 20 s sample associated with the reduction of e -CB concentration, which were attributed to intenser built-in electric field force induced by Schottky barrier and higher charge transfer efficiency [52]. The parameter η in with a direct correlation to the amount of hot electron injection, which is sensitive with the discrete particle size of Au NPs.…”

Mechanism investigation of PtPd decorated Zn0.5Cd0.5S nanorods with efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production combining with kinetics and thermodynamics

“…The PL lifetime in PtPd/ZCS is shorter than that in ZCS (0.2389 vs. 0.2505 ns) (Fig. 4(c)), indicating that the effective charge transfer is from photocatalyst to cocatalyst and the PL lifetime will be reduced [52][53][54][55], and the hybrid sample has high separation competence of electron-hole pairs, which should enhance catalytic hydrogen evolution activity.…”

Synergistic Enhancement of Piezocatalytic Activity of BaTiO3 Convex Polyhedrons Nanocomposited with Ag NPs/Co3O4 QDs Cocatalysts

“…Well-recognized BaTiO 3 micro-polyhedrons with different exposed facets can be easily synthesized by a facile molten salt flux method . Noble metals (such as Pt, Au, and Ag) − are usually used as electron-transport cocatalysts, while some metal oxides (such as RuO 2 , CoO x , and MnO x ) − are considered as hole-transport cocatalysts for the assembly of catalysts. Ag and Co 3 O 4 are carefully selected as cocatalysts in this work because they are relatively inexpensive but effective compared to Pt and RuO 2 . , …”