Largely enhanced photocatalytic activity of Au/XS2/Au (X = Re, Mo) antenna–reactor hybrids: charge and energy transfer

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 10; no. 8; pp. 4130 - 4137
• Main Authors: Chen, Kai, Si-Jing, Ding, Zhi-Jun Luo, Gui-Ming Pan, Jia-Hong, Wang, Liu, Jia, Zhou, Li, Qu-Quan, Wang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 28.02.2018
• Subjects: Catalysis; Catalytic activity; Charge transfer; Coupling; Energy transfer; Gold; Molybdenum disulfide; Nanoparticles; Photocatalysis
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/c7nr09362d

An antenna–reactor hybrid coupling plasmonic antenna with catalytic nanoparticles is a new strategy to optimize photocatalytic activity. Herein, we have rationally proposed a Au/XS2/Au (X = Re, Mo) antenna reactor, which has a large Au core as the antenna and small satellite Au nanoparticles as the reactor separated by an ultrathin two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide XS2 shell (∼2.6 nm). Due to efficient charge transfer across the XS2 shell as well as energy transfer via coupling of the Au antenna and Au reactor, the photocatalytic activity has been largely enhanced: Au/ReS2/Au exhibits a 3.59-fold enhancement, whereas Au/MoS2/Au exhibits a 2.66-fold enhancement as compared to that of the sum of the three individual components. The different enhancement in the Au/ReS2/Au and Au/MoS2/Au antenna–reactor hybrid is related to the competition and cooperation of charge and energy transfer. These results indicate the great potential of the Au/XS2/Au antenna–reactor hybrid for the development of highly efficient plasmonic photocatalysts.