Directing Energy Flow in Core–Shell Nanostructures for Efficient Plasmon-Enhanced Electrocatalysis
Hayoon Jung, Yongmin Kwon, Yonghyeon Kim, Hochan Ahn, Hojin Ahn, Younghyun Wy, Sang Woo Han
Abstract
Conjugating plasmonic metals with catalytically active materials with controlled configurations can harness their light energy harvesting ability in catalysis. Herein, we present a well-defined core-shell nanostructure composed of an octahedral Au nanocrystal core and a PdPt alloy shell as a bifunctional energy conversion platform for plasmon-enhanced electrocatalysis. The prepared Au@PdPt core-shell nanostructures exhibited significant enhancements in electrocatalytic activity for methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions under visible-light irradiation. Our experimental and computational studies revealed that the electronic hybridization of Pd and Pt allows the alloy material to have a large imaginary dielectric function, which can efficiently induce the shell-biased distribution of plasmon energy upon illumination and, hence, its relaxation at the catalytically active region to promote electrocatalysis.