Insightful understanding of hot-carrier generation and transfer in plasmonic Au@CeO2 core–shell photocatalysts for light-driven hydrogen evolution improvement

Light-to-Hydrogen Improvement Based on Three-Factored Au@CeO2/Gr Hierarchical Photocatalysts

“…However, the three-factored Au@CeO 2 /Gr 2.0 entity presents a stronger resonance signal than the free-standing CeO 2 , demonstrating a higher O V concentration and matching the foregoing O C /O L ratio and Ce 3+ content in these samples. It is noted that the content of the catalytically active Ce 3+ and O V sites in Au@CeO 2 is much higher than that of free CeO 2 because the Ce 4+ ions can be reduced to Ce 3+ by the electron migration from the Au core to the CeO 2 inner shell after Au–Ce bonding . In addition, the surface hybridization of the CeO 2 inner shell with the Gr-related materials can change its optoelectronic properties, i .…”

“…g ., semiconductors), offers a low-cost, simple, and efficient strategy. , To further enhance the efficiency of HER activity such that it matches the requirements for practical uses, a highly active and long-lasting photocatalyst system is urgently required . To this end, core–shell nanostructures (CSNSs), where the noble metals serve as the core and the semiconductors as the shell, have attracted considerable attention because of their promising features The CSNSs can improve the intimate interfacial contacts between the metals and the semiconductors, facilitating the generation and transfer of hot electron–hole pairs between the core and shell ingredients. , The optoelectronic properties of the metal/semiconductor CSNSs are modulated for light-harvesting and conversion . In addition, the CSNSs deliver large specific surface areas and abundant catalytic active sites and long-lasting photocatalyst systems. , …”

“…The semiconductor shells can consume the ENF plasmon decay from the plasmonic cores and capture the hot electrons migrating from the SPR host into the conduction band (CB) to guide catalyst reactions. Alternatively, ceria (CeO 2 ) is emerging as an SPR acceptor for light-to-energy conversions . By combining with plasmon metals ( e .…”

Optimized hot electron injection from Cu nanoparticles to S-doped C3N4by the formed S–Cu bonds for an enhanced photocatalytic performance

“…Compared with bare Cu NPs, their obvious SPR redshift in SCN–Cu is attributed to the change in the dielectric environment and electron concentration decrease of the Cu surface by their transfer to SCN. 39 The SPR peak ( λ p ) of Cu NPs is expressed as eqn (4): 40,41 where m eff and N are the effective mass of electrons and their density in Cu NPs, respectively. So the λ p redshift in SCN–Cu is enough to indicate that the electron transfer from Cu to SCN has occurred.…”

Tandem Nanostructures: A Prospective Platform for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

“…Tandem nanostructures consisting of rationally designed nanostructured units represent an effective photoelectrode configuration to break the performance bottleneck imposed by the unitary nanostructure, which include the following types: 1) core‐shell nanostructures for single photoelectrode, which combines the highly‐absorbent material (such as Si, [ 12 ] III‐V compound semiconductors, [11c,13] etc.) as the core, while the metal oxides shell as buffer and protective layer, [12a,13a,14] and the cocatalyst anchored on the metal oxides shell [ 15 ] ; 2) two‐photoelectrode tandem cell assembled in parallel or in monolithic to realize the highly‐efficient or unassisted water splitting, where the photocathode produces hydrogen with the photoanode generating oxygen simultaneously, and the self‐driven bias depends on the difference of aligned Fermi levels in photocathode and photoanode, respectively [ 16 ] ; 3) tandem nanostructures of plasmon related devices for the improvement of PEC water splitting, where nanostructures of noble metals like Au or Ag are surrounded by semiconductors in a layered tandem structure [ 17 ] or in a Janus heteronanostructure, [3b,18] and the specific mechanisms of plasmons such as hot electron injections, local electric field enhancement, and resonance energy transfer could be clarified more clearly in the regular structure. The overview of the tandem nanostructures schematics and tandem devices for PEC water splitting is shown in Figure .…”