Direct evidence of an efficient plasmon-induced hot-electron transfer at in situ grown Ag/TiO2 interface for highly enhanced solar H2generation

Plasmon-induced hot electron generation and its efficient transfer to the conduction band (CB) of neighboring metal oxide is an effective route to solar energy harvesting. However, till now, this process is very inefficient due to the poor charge transfer rate from plasmonic metal nanoparticle (NPs) to the CB of the oxide semiconductor. In this work, an in situ grown synthesis method has been developed to grow plasmonic Ag NPs within titanium oxide (TiO2) matrix. This synthesis method allows us to deposit Ag NP surrounded by TiO2 semiconductor, which results an efficient charge transfer from Ag NP to the CB of TiO2 and has been utilized for highly enhanced electro-photocatalytic H2 generation. Photoelectrochemical measurement of an optimized Ag (NPs)-TiO2 thin film photoanodes showed a high photocurrent generation of density 42 mA cm-2 in 1M KOH solution which is three order higher than pure TiO2and stable for more than 1.5 hours, indication it’s excellent potential application for photoelectrochemical (P...