Yolk-Shelled Gold@Cuprous Oxide Nanostructures with Hot Carriers Boosting Photocatalytic Performance

Abstract

Plasmonic Au nanoparticles (NPs) have been commonly used to enhance the photocatalytic activity of Cu2O. Till now, core–shell Au NP@Cu2O composites have been reported in previous studies. Yet, these Au@Cu2O composites only exhibit visible light response. Other special Au nanostructures, such as Au nanorods (NRs) or Au nanobipyramids (NBPs), which possess near-infrared light absorption, were rarely used to endow the near-infrared light response for Cu2O. In this work, for the first time, we used Au NPs, Au NRs, and Au NBPs and employed a handy and universal method to synthesize a series of yolk-shelled Au@Cu2O composites. The results showed that the yolk-shelled Au@Cu2O composites had much higher photocatalytic activity than their solid-shelled ones and pure Cu2O. More importantly, yolk-shelled Au NR@Cu2O and Au NBP@Cu2O composites indeed presented excellent near-infrared light-driven photocatalytic activity, which were impossible for Au NP@Cu2O and pure Cu2O. This outstanding performance for yolk-shelled Au NR@Cu2O and Au NBP@Cu2O could be attributed to the transfer of abundant hot electrons from Au NRs or Au NBPs to Cu2O, and the timely utilization of hot holes on Au through the rich pore channels on their yolk-shelled structure. Furthermore, yolk-shelled Au@Cu2O also showed better stability than pure Cu2O, owing to the migration of the oxidizing holes from Cu2O to Au driven by the built-in electric field. This work may give a guide to fabricate controllable and effective photocatalysts based on plasmonic metals and semiconductors with full solar light-driven photocatalytic activities in the future.

A carbon capture and storage technique using gold nanoparticles coupled with Cu-based composited thin film catalysts

“…The metal-semiconductor nonradiative decay can improve electron transformation and prevent electron-hole pair recombination. [28][29][30] Previous studies have shown several Au nanostructures combined with Cu 2 O particles for various photochemical and electrochemical reactions, for example, the photocatalytic destruction, 26 hydrogen evolution reaction, 31 oxygen evolution reaction, 32 CO oxidation, 33 CO 2 RR but with Cu 2 O nanotubes with Au NP deposition, 34 instead of the direct deposition of thin lms in the current study, which is arguably easier to prepare and replicate for future development.…”

Boosting the photocatalytic performance of Cu2O for hydrogen generation by Au nanostructures and rGO nanosheets

“…In our previous work, we have already proved that yolk–shelled Au@Cu 2 O could be obtained with this Ostwald ripening process and exhibit much better photocatalytic activities than solid Au@Cu 2 O. 16 Accordingly, in this work, y-Au@Cu 2 O/rGO must be preferred rather than the solid core–shelled Au@Cu 2 O/rGO.…”

“…14 Recently, our group has reported jujube-like Au NBP@Cu 2 O core-shelled composites and yolkshelled Au NR/NBP@Cu 2 O composites, respectively, revealing these Au and Cu 2 O composites possessed strong light absorption in the near-infrared region as well as full-spectrum-driven photocatalytic performance. 15,16 The stability of Cu 2 O was also improved obviously due to the quick transfer of photogenerated holes to Au. Although the above Au NR/NBPs and Cu 2 O composite photocatalysts showed considerable photocatalytic behaviour, there still existed a common problem that the photogenerated carriers on Cu 2 O and hot carriers on Au are limited to some degree in the core-shelled structure that needed to be adequately transferred and separated in order to further boost the photocatalytic efficiency.…”

Synthesis of Noble Metal M@YSiO2 Yolk–Shell Nanoparticles with Thin Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Outer Shells via an Aqueous Medium Phase

“…Core–shell nanoparticles have attracted much attention due to their functional core and protective shell (high specific surface area and modified surface). − As a special kind of core–shell structure, the yolk–shell structure has a movable core and a hollow nanocavity shell, and its composite function is expected to be further improved and applied. , Different kinds of yolk–shell nanoparticles have been developed and applied in various fields, such as catalysis, − energy storage, , biological imaging, − and drug delivery carriers. − However, it remains to be further studied to simplify and optimize the preparation process of yolk–shell nanoparticles.…”