Two-dimensional amorphous NiO as a plasmonic photocatalyst for solar H<sub>2</sub> evolution.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30279416.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-06456-y and PMC identifier 6168506.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Amorphous materials are usually evaluated as photocatalytically inactive due to the amorphous nature-induced self-trapping of tail states, in spite of their achievements in electrochemistry. NiO crystals fail to act as an individual reactor for photocatalytic H<sub>2</sub> evolution because of the intrinsic hole doping, regardless of their impressive cocatalytic ability for proton/electron transfer. Here we demonstrate that two-dimensional amorphous NiO nanostructure can act as an efficient and robust photocatalyst for solar H<sub>2</sub> evolution without any cocatalysts. Further, the antenna effect of surface plasmon resonance can be introduced to construct an incorporate antenna-reactor structure by increasing the electron doping. The solar H<sub>2</sub> evolution rate is improved by a factor of 19.4 through the surface plasmon resonance-mediated charge releasing. These findings thus open a door to applications of two-dimensional amorphous NiO as an advanced photocatalyst.