Engineering Titania Nanostructure to Tune and Improve Its Photocatalytic Activity

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2016 Apr 2

PMID 27035977

Citations 7

Authors

Matteo Cargnello

Tiziano Montini

Sergey Y Smolin

Jacqueline B Priebe

Juan J Delgado Jaen

Vicky V T Doan-Nguyen

Ian S McKay

Jay A Schwalbe

Marga-Martina Pohl

Thomas R Gordon

Yupeng Lu

Jason B Baxter

Angelika Bruckner

Paolo Fornasiero

Christopher B Murray

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Photocatalytic pathways could prove crucial to the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals required for a carbon-neutral society. Electron-hole recombination is a critical problem that has, so far, limited the efficiency of the most promising photocatalytic materials. Here, we show the efficacy of anisotropy in improving charge separation and thereby boosting the activity of a titania (TiO2) photocatalytic system. Specifically, we show that H2 production in uniform, one-dimensional brookite titania nanorods is highly enhanced by engineering their length. By using complimentary characterization techniques to separately probe excited electrons and holes, we link the high observed reaction rates to the anisotropic structure, which favors efficient carrier utilization. Quantum yield values for hydrogen production from ethanol, glycerol, and glucose as high as 65%, 35%, and 6%, respectively, demonstrate the promise and generality of this approach for improving the photoactivity of semiconducting nanostructures for a wide range of reacting systems.

Citing Articles

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