RESUMO
Efficient light-stimulated hydrogen generation from top-down produced highly doped n-type silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in water-containing medium under white light irradiation is reported. It is observed that SiNWs with AgNPs generate at least 2.5 times more hydrogen than SiNWs without AgNPs. The authors' results, based on vibrational, UV-vis, and X-ray spectroscopy studies, strongly suggest that the sidewalls of the SiNWs are covered by silicon suboxides, by up to a thickness of 120 nm, with wide bandgap semiconductor properties that are similar to those of titanium dioxide and remain stable during hydrogen evolution in a water-containing medium for at least 3 h of irradiation. Based on synchrotron studies, it is found that the increase in the silicon bandgap is related to the energetically beneficial position of the valence band in nanostructured silicon, which renders these promising structures for efficient hydrogen generation.
RESUMO
The reduction of graphene oxide (GO) with a large-scale production has been demonstrated to be one of the key steps for the preparation of graphene-based composite materials with various potential applications. Therefore, it is highly required to develop a facile, green, and environmentally friendly route for the effective reduction of GO. In this study, a new and effective reduced method of GO nanosheets, based on the dye-sensitization-induced visible-light reduction mechanism, was developed to prepare reduced GO (rGO) and graphene-based TiO2 composite in the absence of any additional reducing agents. It was found that the dye-sensitization-induced reduction process of GO was accompanied with the formation of TiO2-rGO composite nanostructure. The photocatalytic experimental results indicated that the resultant TiO2-rGO nanocomposites exhibited significantly higher photocatalytic performance than pure TiO2 because of a rapid separation of photogenerated electrons and holes by the rGO cocatalyst.