Plasmonic Au nanoparticles supported on both sides of TiO2 hollow spheres for maximising photocatalytic activity under visible light

Abstract

A strategy of intensifying the visible light harvesting ability of anatase TiO 2 hollow spheres (HSs) was developed, in which both sides of TiO 2 HSs were utilised for stabilising Au nanoparticles (NPs) through the sacrificial templating method and convex surface-induced confinement. The composite structure of single Au NP yolk-TiO 2 shell-Au NPs, denoted as Au@Au(TiO 2 , was rendered and confirmed by the transmission electron microscopy analysis. Au@Au(TiO 2 showed enhanced photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue and phenol in aqueous phase under visible light surpassing that of other reference materials such as Au(TiO 2 by 77% and Au@P25 by 52%, respectively, in phenol degradation.

Research progress of yolk–shell structured nanoparticles and their application in catalysis

“…YSNs can also be used as photocatalyst for the degradation of organic pollutants in water, such as dyes, 63–75 pesticides 76 and antibiotics. 77,78 For example, Wang et al reported the preparation of Fe 3 O 4 @ns-TiO 2 /Ag/g-C 3 N 4 YSNs which exhibited superior photocatalytic performance for degradation of methyl orange.…”

Simulation of yolk-shell nanostructures optical properties

“…In the study of Hadeer H, 3 it is found that locating yolk-shell nanoparticles on top/bottom surfaces of solar cells is proposed as an efficient way to increase the absorbance of the solar 4 , 5 . Under visible light, hot electrons are generated by the LSPR effect in the Au-TiO2 nanotubes, 6 which can be involved in redox reaction improving the degradation efficiency of organic pollutants 7 . Sun et al 8 .…”

Ultra-thin N-doped carbon coated SnO2 nanotubes as anode material for high performance lithium-ion batteries

“…However, the most common products of hollow structured nanosized SnO2 are in spherical shape [31][32][33]. This is because the preparation methods that uses silica and polymer nanospheres as the template to maintain the deposition and growth of SnO2 nanocrystals, but the subsequent process of template removal is complicated [14,[34][35][36][37].…”