Blue-edge slow photons promoting visible-light hydrogen production on gradient ternary 3DOM TiO2-Au-CdS photonic crystals

Heng Zhao, Zhiyi Hu, Jing Liu, Yu Li, Min Wu, Gustaaf Van Tendeloo, Bao Lian Su

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The slow photon effect, a structural effect of photonic crystal photocatalyst, is very efficient in the enhancement of photocatalytic reactions. However, slow photons in powdered photonic crystal photocatalyst have rarely been discussed because they are usually randomly oriented when the photocatalytic reaction happens in solution under constant stirring. In this work, for the first time we design a gradient ternary TiO2-Au-CdS photonic crystal based on three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) TiO2 as skeleton, Au as electron transfer medium and CdS as active material for photocatalytic H2 production under visible-light. As a result, this gradient ternary photocatalyst is favorable to simultaneously enhance light absorption, extend the light responsive region and reduce the recombination rate of the charge carriers. In particular, we found that slow photons at blue-edge exhibit much higher photocatalytic activity than that at red-edge. The photonic crystal photocatalyst with a macropore size of 250 nm exhibits the highest visible-light H2 production rate of 3.50 mmolh−1g−1 due to the slow photon energy at the blue-edge to significantly enhance the incident photons utilization. This work verifies that slow photons at the blue-edge can largely enhance light harvesting and sheds a light on designing the powdered photonic crystal photocatalyst to promote the photocatalytic H2 production via slow photon effect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)266-274
Number of pages9
JournalNano Energy
Volume47
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2018

Funding

B. L. Su acknowledges the Chinese Central Government for an “Expert of the State” position in the Program of the “Thousand Talents”. Y. Li acknowledges Hubei Provincial Department of Education for the “Chutian Scholar” program. This work is financially supported the National Key R&D Program of China ( 2016YFA0202602 ), National Natural Science Foundation of China ( U1663225, 51502225 ), Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University ( IRT_15R52 ), Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation ( 2015CFB516 ), International Science &Technology Cooperation Program of China ( 2015DFE52870 ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WUT: 2016III029 ). Appendix A

FundersFunder number
Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in UniversityIRT_15R52
National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaU1663225, 51502225
Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province2015CFB516
Wuhan University of Technology2016III029
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
National Key Clinical Specialty Discipline Construction Program of China2016YFA0202602
International Science and Technology Cooperation Programme2015DFE52870

    Keywords

    • Blue-edge
    • Gradient ternary 3DOM TiO-Au-CdS
    • Photocatalytic H production
    • Photonic crystals
    • Red-edge
    • Slow photon effect
    • Photocatalytic H2 production

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