The Au/Ag alloy nanoshuttle-TiO2 nanostructure with enhanced H-2 production under visible light and inactivation analysis

摘要

Plasmonic noble metal has been applied in photocatalytic materials, and TiO2 with plasmonic noble metal has been studied for a long time. In this work, we have fabricated incomplete covered Au/Ag alloy nanoshuttle-TiO2 nanomaterials with 268.7 mu mol g(-1) h(-1) H-2-evolution in a simple solution method. The considerable photocatalytic performance is mainly due to the enhanced surface plasmon resonance effect of Au/Ag alloy nanoshuttles. It has been found that TiO2 clusters attached to the Au/Ag nanoshuttles surface migrate under electrons irradiation and cover the exposed Au/Ag NS surface to achieve thermodynamic stability, which results in instability of photocatalytic performance. The mechanism has been discussed in detail.