Synthesis and Plasmon‐Induced Charge‐Transfer Properties of Monodisperse Gold‐Doped Titania Microspheres

Abstract

Monodisperse gold-doped titania microspheres have been synthesized under high concentration of a titanium precursor (9.34 mM) by introducing a trace amount of chloroauric acid (CA) into the reaction system; the size of the microspheres can be easily tuned (from approximately 587 to approximately 392 nm) by varying the amount of the CA added. The plausible formation mechanism has been discussed in detail. Chloroauric acid was found to act as the stabilizing agent to induce the formation of monodisperse colloidal spheres. Gold-doped anatase titania spheres with approximately 7 nm gold nanodots on the surface were synthesized by calcination. Interestingly, results from surface photocurrent, surface photovoltage, and transient photovoltage measurements indicate that the gold nanodots exhibit different electronic properties when the gold-doped anatase titania spheres were illuminated by different wavelengths of light: one is an electron acceptor in the UV region, while the other is an electron donor in the visible region. Furthermore, the decay time of the injected plasmon-induced electrons was found to be on the millisecond timescale and increased with increasing amounts of gold doped.

Plasmon-enhanced photocurrent generation and water oxidation from visible to near-infrared wavelengths

“…[15][16][17][18][19] Therefore, it is understood that metallic nanostructures act as photoelectric conversion systems that enable the effective utilization of photons, having a role similar to that of chlorophyll in photosynthesis. [20][21][22][23] Although many photoelectric conversion systems using LSPR have been previously reported, the wavelengths at which photoelectric conversion occurs did not extend beyond 700 nm, [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] creating a need to explore photoelectric conversion at infrared wavelengths past 800 nm.…”

One-step, solvothermal synthesis of graphene-CdS and graphene-ZnS quantum dot nanocomposites and their interesting photovoltaic properties

“…One possibility is that it contributes to the photovoltaic response; thus, we used the [21][22][23][24][25], to characterize the GNs-CdS QD system. Figure 4 shows the TPV spectra of the GNs, GNs-CdS, and CdS.…”

A mild synthetic route to Fe3O4@TiO2-Au composites: preparation, characterization and photocatalytic activity

“…A UV-3010 spectrophotometer was used to measure the UV-Vis absorption spectrum of an RhB solution at different irradiation intervals. The surface photovoltage (SPV) measurements of Fe 3 O 4 @TiO 2 and Fe 3 O 4 @TiO 2 -Au were performed on a lock-in based SPV measurement system at room temperature under an air atmosphere[29][30][31][32].…”