The generation, transfer, and collection of plasmon-derived hot electrons represent a distinctive pathway for the utilization of solar energy. Herein, we report the construction of a plasmonic photodetector from a metal/TiO 2 Schottky junction, featuring using a solution-processed continuous nanoporous Au film (CNAuF) as the light absorption layer and an n-type TiO 2 film as the electron acceptation layer. Because of its plasmon properties, the CNAuF can absorb broadband light in the visible region and in turn creates abundant hot electrons (via the decay of its plasmon). Using a CNAuF/TiO 2 Schottky junction, these hot electrons can be collected into the TiO 2 film to generate a steady-state photocurrent. As a result, the plasmonic photodetector constructed from the CNAuF/TiO 2 Schottky junction delivers an appreciable photoresponse to visible light. Taking the photoresponse to 532 nm light as an example, this plasmonic photodetector delivers a high responsivity of 0.06 A/W, a specific detectivity of 3.9 × 10 9 Jones, and an external quantum efficiency of 13.8%, with a rise time and a decay time being 110 and 120 ms, respectively. The bottom-up nature of the solution-processed strategy offers great flexibility to tune the plasmonic nanostructure and in turn its optical properties, thereby creating many possibilities for the creation of nextgeneration plasmonic photoelectric devices and beyond.
Synthesis of high-quality metal nanoparticles (NPs) is the premise toward their downstream diverse applications. Although some electrochemical synthesis strategies have been developed, the necessary use of high-concentration electrolyte solution as current pathway and reaction medium severely limits the colloidal stability of the growing NPs in the solution and their tunability in size and shape. Herein, we report a collision electrochemical method for the synthesis of metal NPs without the use of electrolyte solution. To this end, we designed an asymmetrical electrochemical cell to control the potential (i.e., to supply electrons) in the reaction system via a separated electrochemical cell, thereby enabling the electrochemical reaction occurring in an electrolyte-free growth solution. Consequently, this collision electrochemical method, using seed-mediated growth of NPs as examples, allows the synthesis of monodisperse homogeneous Au NPs and heterogeneous Pd-and Pt-coated Au NPs at a yield comparable to that achieved in common chemical synthesis. Furthermore, this method allows readily tailoring the morphology of the resultant metal NPs just by changing the concentration of the growth solution. Therefore, our green synthesis method is important for a variety of nanomaterials beyond metal NPs.
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