journal article·2021-05-14

Unassisted Highly Selective Gas-Phase CO2 Reduction with a Plasmonic Au/p-GaN Photocatalyst Using H2O as an Electron Donor

Rengui Li, Wen-Hui Cheng, Matthias H. Richter, Joseph S. DuChene, Wenming Tian, Can Li, Harry A. Atwater

ACS Energy Letters· Volume 6· Issue 5
Publisher page

Abstract

Surface plasmon resonances in metal nanostructures enable the generation of nonequilibrium hot electron–hole pairs, which has received wide interest as a means to drive chemical reactions at the nanoscale. However, harvesting hot holes in plasmonic heterostructures to drive oxidation reactions to balance the photocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction has been challenging. Further, details of the balanced redox reaction pathways for gas-phase photocatalysis have been difficult to identify. Here, we report an Au/p-GaN plasmonic heterostructure photocatalyst in which unassisted, self-sustaining, highly selective photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO is directly balanced by water oxidation, operating under solar illumination. We find remarkable enhancements in CO yield for heterostructures that employ a metal/insulator/semiconductor configuration with an ultrathin aluminum oxide layer between composite Au/Cu nanoparticles and p-GaN. Our work underscores the potential for plasmonic heterostructure photocatalysts to perform selective and unassisted gas-phase photocatalytic CO2 reduction to convert solar energy into chemical fuels.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques · Ga2O3 and related materials · ZnO doping and properties

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 United States

Department of Applied Physics and Material Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States

State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China

Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States

Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States

State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dynamic Research Center for Energy and Environmental Materials, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China

Funding

Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology

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