Gold Nanoparticles Supported on Silica & Titania Hybrid Mesoporous Spheres and Their Catalytic Performance Regulation

In order to exploit energy sources (like photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production) and protect environment (like organics degradation), supported noble metal catalysts have made considerable progress in terms of design, fabrication, and theory. Herein, based on the specific morphology and structure of dendritic mesoporous silica nanospheres (DMSNs), TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) were introduced into the channels via Sol-Gel method, developing 4 , : 405 dendritic mesoporous silica&titania nanospheres (DMSTNs). Then, amino groups (-NH 2 ) were grafted onto DMSTNs surfaces by organic modification technology. Finally, ultrasmall gold (Au) NPs were anchored onto the as-prepared DMSTNs-NH 2 through impregnation method and sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ) reduction. DMSTNs supported Au NPs catalysts could be successfully constructed, as verified by different methods. Under simulated sunlight for splitting water, the amount of produced H 2 by the brand-new catalysts and the corresponding rate are 69.08 molg -1 and 13.82 molg -1 h -1 , respectively, roughly times of that of the contrast sample (DMSNs supported Au NPs).