Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Using Dual Plasmonic Antennas
Jingliang Yang, Yonglin He, He Ren, Han‐Liang Zhong, Jia‐Sheng Lin, Weimin Yang, Ming‐De Li, Zhilin Yang, Hua Zhang, Zhong‐Qun Tian, Jian‐Feng Li
Abstract
Plasmon-mediated photocatalytic water splitting has attracted extensive attention due to its bright future in using visible light, but the enhancement mechanism is still unclear, and the efficiency remains low. Herein, a dual-plasmonic-antenna strategy that allows efficient generation of energetic hot electrons and strong electromagnetic fields simultaneously has been developed to boost the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Au@CdS core–shell nanoparticles are assembled on Ag@SiO2 shell-isolated nanoparticles, forming dual-plasmonic-antenna nanocomposites. Transient absorption spectroscopic experiments and electromagnetic field simulations demonstrate that both hot-electron transfer and plasmon-induced resonance energy transfer exist in this system. The Au@CdS antenna can generate energetic hot electrons to trigger the HER, while the Ag@SiO2 antenna produces strong electromagnetic fields to promote the generation and separation of hot carriers, thus significantly improving the HER performance under visible light irradiation. Such a dual-plasmonic-antenna concept overcomes the intrinsic limitation of traditional plasmonic photocatalytic materials and offers unique opportunities to develop efficient photocatalysts.