Journal article
An autonomous photosynthetic device in which all charge carriers derive from surface plasmons
Nature nanotechnology, Vol.8(4), pp.247-251
04/2013
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2013.18
PMID: 23435280
Abstract
Solar conversion to electricity or to fuels based on electron-hole pair production in semiconductors is a highly evolved scientific and commercial enterprise. Recently, it has been posited that charge carriers either directly transferred from the plasmonic structure to a neighbouring semiconductor (such as TiO₂) or to a photocatalyst, or induced by energy transfer in a neighbouring medium, could augment photoconversion processes, potentially leading to an entire new paradigm in harvesting photons for practical use. The strong dependence of the wavelength at which the local surface plasmon can be excited on the nanostructure makes it possible, in principle, to design plasmonic devices that can harvest photons over the entire solar spectrum and beyond. So far, however, most such systems show rather small photocatalytic activity in the visible as compared with the ultraviolet. Here, we report an efficient, autonomous solar water-splitting device based on a gold nanorod array in which essentially all charge carriers involved in the oxidation and reduction steps arise from the hot electrons resulting from the excitation of surface plasmons in the nanostructured gold. Each nanorod functions without external wiring, producing 5 × 10(13) H₂ molecules per cm(2) per s under 1 sun illumination (AM 1.5 and 100 mW cm(-2)), with unprecedented long-term operational stability.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- An autonomous photosynthetic device in which all charge carriers derive from surface plasmons
- Creators
- Syed Mubeen - University of California, Santa BarbaraJoun Lee - University of California, Santa BarbaraNirala Singh - University of California, Santa BarbaraStephan Krämer - University of California, Santa BarbaraGalen D Stucky - University of California, Santa BarbaraMartin Moskovits - University of California, Santa Barbara
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Nature nanotechnology, Vol.8(4), pp.247-251
- DOI
- 10.1038/nnano.2013.18
- PMID
- 23435280
- ISSN
- 1748-3387
- eISSN
- 1748-3395
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/2013
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984197440902771
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