Kravets Vasyl G, Grigorenko Alexander N
Department of Physics and Astronomy, the University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 7;15(1):1224. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-82494-5.
Plasmonic nanostructures can help to drive chemical photocatalytic reactions powered by sunlight. These reactions involve excitation of plasmon resonances and subsequent charge transfer to molecular orbitals under study. Here we engineered photoactive plasmonic nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic performance using non-noble metallic MgB high-temperature superconductor which represents a new family of photocatalysts. Ellipsometric study of fabricated MgB nanostructures demonstrates that this covalent binary metal with layered graphite-like structure could effectively absorb visible and infrared light by excitation of multi-wavelengths surface plasmon resonances. We show that a MgB plasmonic metal-based photocatalyst exhibit fundamentally different behaviour compared to that of a semiconductor photocatalyst and provides several advantages in photovoltaics applications. Excitation of localised surface plasmon resonances in MgB nanostructures allows one to overcome the limiting factors of photocatalytic efficiency observed in semiconductors with a wide energy bandgap due to the usage of a broader spectrum range of solar radiation for water splitting catalytic reactions conditioned by enhanced local electromagnetic fields of localised plasmons. Excitation of localised surface plasmon resonances induced by absorption of light in MgB nanosheets could help to achieve near full-solar spectrum harvesting in this photocatalytic system. We demonstrate a conversion efficiency of ~ 5% at bias voltage of = 0.3 V for magnesium diboride working as a catalyst for the case of plasmon-photoinduced seawater splitting. Our work could result in inexpensive and stable photocatalysts that can be produced in large quantities using a mechanical rolling mill procedure.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-024-82494-5.
等离子体纳米结构有助于驱动由阳光提供能量的化学光催化反应。这些反应涉及等离子体共振的激发以及随后向所研究分子轨道的电荷转移。在这里，我们使用非贵金属MgB高温超导体设计了具有增强光催化性能的光活性等离子体纳米结构，该超导体代表了一类新型光催化剂。对制备的MgB纳米结构的椭偏研究表明，这种具有层状石墨状结构的共价二元金属可以通过激发多波长表面等离子体共振有效地吸收可见光和红外光。我们表明，与半导体光催化剂相比，基于MgB等离子体金属的光催化剂表现出根本不同的行为，并在光伏应用中具有几个优点。MgB纳米结构中局域表面等离子体共振的激发使人们能够克服在具有宽带隙的半导体中观察到的光催化效率的限制因素，这是由于利用了更宽光谱范围的太阳辐射用于由局域等离子体增强的局部电磁场调节的水分解催化反应。MgB纳米片中光吸收引起的局域表面等离子体共振的激发有助于在该光催化系统中实现近乎全太阳光谱的捕获。对于作为等离子体光诱导海水分解催化剂的二硼化镁，我们在偏置电压V = 0.3 V时展示了约5%的转换效率。我们的工作可能会产生廉价且稳定的光催化剂，这些催化剂可以使用机械轧机工艺大量生产。
在线版本包含可在10.1038/s41598-024-82494-5获取的补充材料。
