Graphene Bridge for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution with Gold Nanocluster Co-Catalysts

Abstract

Herein, the UV light photocatalytic activity of an Au101NC-AlSrTiO3-rGO nanocomposite comprising 1 wt% rGO, 0.05 wt% Au101(PPh3)21Cl5 (Au101NC), and AlSrTiO3 evaluated for H2 production. The synthesis of Au101NC-AlSrTiO3-rGO nanocomposite followed two distinct routes: (1) Au101NC was first mixed with AlSrTiO3 followed by the addition of rGO (Au101NC-AlSrTiO3:rGO) and (2) Au101NC was first mixed with rGO followed by the addition of AlSrTiO3 (Au101NC-rGO:AlSrTiO3). Both prepared samples were annealed in air at 210 °C for 15 min. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy showed that the Au101NC adhered almost exclusively to the rGO in the nanocomposite and maintained a size less than 2 nm. Under UV light irradiation, the Au101NC-AlSrTiO3:rGO nanocomposite produced H2 at a rate 12 times greater than Au101NC-AlSrTiO3 and 64 times greater than AlSrTiO3. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is attributed to the small particle size and high loading of Au101NC, which is achieved by non-covalent binding to rGO. These results show that significant improvements can be made to AlSrTiO3-based photocatalysts that use cluster co-catalysts by the addition of rGO as an electron mediator to achieve high cluster loading and limited agglomeration of the clusters.

Recent Progress on Ligand-Protected Metal Nanoclusters in Photocatalysis

“…Recently, Hanieh Mousavi and co-workers studied the photocatalytic production of H 2 using AuNCs as co-catalysts. They prepared a nanocomposite (Au 101 NC-AlSrTiO 3 -rGO) containing AuNCs, RGO, and AlSrTiO 3, and the composite showed enhanced photocatalytic water splitting under UV light irradiation [ 147 ].…”

Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Using Nitrogen‐Functionalized MesoporousTiO2 Decorated with Au9 Nanoclusters

“…[12,14,15] The achievement in synthesizing atomically precise nanoclusters (NCs) has opened up new opportunities to study the catalytic reactions. [16] They have shown to be active electrochemical, [17,18] photo [19,20] and thermo [13,21,22] catalytically in a variety of reactions. Au NCs smaller than 1.5 nm exhibit a molecule-like quantized electronic structure owing to the quantum confinement effect.…”