Yang Libin, Gao Peng, Lu Jinghao, Guo Wei, Zhuang Zhuang, Wang Qingqing, Li Wenjing, Feng Zhiying
College of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Brine Chemical Engineering and Resource Eco-utilization, Tianjin University of Science and Technology Tianjin 300457 China
Institute of Coal Chemical Industry Technology, CHN Energy Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co. Ltd. Yinchuan Ningxia 750411 China.
RSC Adv. 2020 Jun 1;10(35):20654-20664. doi: 10.1039/d0ra01996h. eCollection 2020 May 27.
Accelerating the separation and migration of photo-carriers (electron-hole pairs) to improve the photo-quantum utilization efficiency in photocatalytic overall water splitting is highly desirable. Herein, the photo-deposition of Ru or Au noble metal clusters with superior electronic properties as a co-catalyst on the (101) facet of anatase TiO and the mechanism of intensifying the photocatalysis have been investigated by calculation based density functional theory (DFT). As a result, the as-synthesized Ru/TiO and Au/TiO exhibit high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. Such a greatly enhanced HER is attributed to the interfacial interactivity of the catalysts due to the existence of robust chemical bonds (Ru-O-Ti, Au-O-Ti) as electron-traps that provide the photogenerated electrons. In addition, the formation of new degenerate energy levels due to the existence of Ru-4d and Au-5d electronic impurity states leads to the narrowing of the band gap of the catalysts. In addition, the as-synthesized Au/TiO exhibits more faster HER rate than Ru/TiO, which is attributed to the effects of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) as a synergistic effect of plasmon-induced 'hot' electrons that enhance the harvesting of the final built-in electric field and promote the migration and separation of the photo-carriers, which efficiently facilitates hydrogen evolution from the photocatalytic overall water splitting reaction.
加速光生载流子(电子-空穴对)的分离和迁移以提高光催化全分解水的光量子利用效率是非常有必要的。在此,通过基于密度泛函理论(DFT)的计算研究了具有优异电子性质的Ru或Au贵金属团簇作为助催化剂在锐钛矿型TiO₂的(101)晶面上的光沉积以及强化光催化的机理。结果表明,合成的Ru/TiO₂和Au/TiO₂表现出高析氢反应(HER)活性。这种HER活性的极大增强归因于催化剂的界面相互作用,这是由于存在作为电子陷阱的强化学键(Ru-O-Ti、Au-O-Ti)来提供光生电子。此外,由于Ru-4d和Au-5d电子杂质态的存在而形成新的简并能级导致催化剂的带隙变窄。此外,合成的Au/TiO₂表现出比Ru/TiO₂更快的HER速率,这归因于表面等离子体共振(SPR)的作用,它作为等离子体诱导的“热”电子的协同效应,增强了最终内建电场的捕获并促进了光生载流子的迁移和分离,从而有效地促进了光催化全分解水反应中的析氢。