Hot plasmonic electrons for generation of enhanced photocurrent in gold-TiO2 nanocomposites.
Nanoscale Res Lett
; 10: 38, 2015.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25852335
ABSTRACT
In this manuscript, for the first time, we report a combination of electrophoretic and sintering approaches for introducing gold nanoparticles into nanoporous TiO2 films to generate 'hot' electrons resulting in a strong enhancement of photocurrent. The Au-TiO2 nanocomposite material was prepared by the electrophoretic deposition of gold nanoparticles into a porous nanoparticulate titanium dioxide film, creating a photoactive electrode. The composite film demonstrates a significant increase in the short circuit current (I sc) compared to unmodified TiO2 when excited at or close to the plasmon resonance of the gold nanoparticles. Then, we employed a thermal ripening process as a method of increasing the I sc of these electrodes and also as a method of tuning the plasmon peak position, with a high degree of selectivity. Photo-electrochemical investigations revealed that the increase in photocurrent is attributed to the generation and separation of plasmonically generated hot electrons at the gold/TiO2 interface and also the inter-band generation of holes in gold nanoparticles by photons with λ < 520 nm. Theoretical modelling outputs perfectly match our results obtained from photo-physical studies of the processes leading to enhanced photocurrent.
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MEDLINE
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En
Ano de publicação:
2015
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Article