Mitchell Robert, Brydson Rik, Douthwaite Richard E
Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK.
Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2015 Jan 7;17(1):493-9. doi: 10.1039/c4cp04333b.
The propagation of light in photonic materials can be modified to increase the probability of photon absorption. Here we report the synthesis of composite materials comprising a photochemically inert photonic macroporous ZrO2 support decorated with photocatalytically active CdS nanoparticles. The relative energies of valence and conduction bands restrict photon absorption and catalysis to the CdS nanoparticles. The generation of hydrogen from water under visible light illumination (>400 nm) has been studied as a function of the photonic support. A maximum 4.7 fold enhancement in hydrogen production is observed compared to a non-photonic support when the absorption band of the CdS nanoparticles partially overlaps with the blue edge of the photonic ZrO2 stop band. This general strategy supports the independent optimization of optical and photochemical processes to increase the overall conversion efficiency of solar to chemical energy.
光在光子材料中的传播可以被改变，以增加光子吸收的概率。在此，我们报道了一种复合材料的合成，该复合材料由光化学惰性的光子大孔ZrO₂载体和光催化活性的CdS纳米颗粒组成。价带和导带的相对能量将光子吸收和催化限制在CdS纳米颗粒上。研究了在可见光照射（>400 nm）下从水中产生氢气作为光子载体的函数。当CdS纳米颗粒的吸收带与光子ZrO₂禁带的蓝边部分重叠时，与非光子载体相比，氢气产量最多提高了4.7倍。这种通用策略支持对光学和光化学过程进行独立优化，以提高太阳能到化学能的整体转换效率。
