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Title: Elucidating the sole contribution from electromagnetic near-fields in plasmon-enhanced Cu2O photocathodes

Journal Article · · Advanced Energy Materials

Despite many promising reports of plasmon-enhanced photocatalysis, the inability to identify the individual contributions from multiple enhancement mechanisms has delayed the development of general design rules for engineering efficient plasmonic photocatalysts. Herein, we construct a plasmonic photocathode comprised of Au@SiO2 (core@shell) nanoparticles embedded within a Cu2O nanowire network to exclusively examine the contribution from one such mechanism: electromagnetic near-field enhancement. The influence of the local electromagnetic field intensity is correlated with the overall light-harvesting efficiency of the device through variation of the SiO2 shell thickness (5—22 nm) to systematically tailor the distance between the plasmonic Au nanoparticles and the Cu2O nanowires. A three-fold increase in device photocurrent is achieved upon integrating the Au@SiO2 nanoparticles into the Cu2O nanowire network, further enabling a ~40% reduction in semiconductor film thickness while maintaining photocathode performance. Photoelectrochemical results are further correlated with photoluminescence studies and optical simulations to confirm that the near-field enhancement is the sole mechanism responsible for increased light absorption in the plasmonic photocathode.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC00112704
OSTI ID:
1224787
Report Number(s):
BNL-108525-2015-JA; R&D Project: 16060/16060; KC0403020
Journal Information:
Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 115, Issue 19; ISSN 1614-6832
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 27 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Plasmon-dominated photoelectrodes for solar water splitting journal January 2017
Quinone and its derivatives for energy harvesting and storage materials journal January 2016
Plasmon‐Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting for Efficient Renewable Energy Storage journal December 2018
Plasmon-driven water splitting enhancement on plasmonic metal–insulator–semiconductor hetero-nanostructures: unraveling the crucial role of interfacial engineering journal January 2018
Multi-interfacial plasmon coupling in multigap (Au/AgAu)@CdS core–shell hybrids for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen generation journal January 2020