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Title: Hot Hole Collection and Photoelectrochemical CO2 Reduction with Plasmonic Au/p-GaN Photocathodes

Journal Article · · Nano Letters

Harvesting nonequilibrium hot carriers from plasmonic- metal nanostructures offers unique opportunities for driving photo- chemical reactions at the nanoscale. Despite numerous examples of hot electron-driven processes, the realization of plasmonic systems capable of harvesting hot holes from metal nanostructures has eluded the nascent field of plasmonic photocatalysis. In this work, we fabricate gold/p-type gallium nitride (Au/p-GaN) Schottky junctions tailored for photoelectrochemical studies of plasmon-induced hot-hole capture and conversion. Despite the presence of an interfacial Schottky barrier to hot-hole injection of more than 1 eV across the Au/p-GaN heterojunction, plasmonic Au/p-GaN photocathodes exhibit photoelectrochemical properties consistent with the injection of hot holes from Au nanoparticles into p- GaN upon plasmon excitation. The photocurrent action spectrum of the plasmonic photocathodes faithfully follows the surface plasmon resonance absorption spectrum of the Au nanoparticles and open-circuit voltage studies demonstrate a sustained photovoltage during plasmon excitation. Comparison with Ohmic Au/p-NiO heterojunctions confirms that the vast majority of hot holes generated via interband transitions in Au are sufficiently hot to inject above the 1.1 eV interfacial Schottky barrier at the Au/p-GaN heterojunction. We further investigated plasmon-driven photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction with the Au/p-GaN photocathodes and observed improved selectivity for CO production over H2 evolution in aqueous electrolytes. Taken together, our results offer experimental validation of photoexcited hot holes more than 1 eV below the Au Fermi level and demonstrate a photoelectrochemical platform for harvesting hot carriers to drive solar-to-fuel energy conversion.

Research Organization:
California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0004993; P2EZP2_159101; P300P2_171417
OSTI ID:
1469320
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Vol. 18, Issue 4; Related Information: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00241; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 240 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Silver-Copper Oxide Heteronanostructures for the Plasmonic-Enhanced Photocatalytic Oxidation of N-Hexane in the Visible-NIR Range journal November 2019
Plasmon damping depends on the chemical nature of the nanoparticle interface journal March 2019
Photoelectrochemical CO 2 reduction to adjustable syngas on grain-boundary-mediated a-Si/TiO 2 /Au photocathodes with low onset potentials journal January 2019
Plasmonic hot electron transfer in anisotropic Pt–Au nanodisks boosts electrochemical reactions in the visible-NIR region journal January 2019
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Plasmonic hot charge carriers activated Ni centres of metal–organic frameworks for the oxygen evolution reaction journal January 2019
Plasmon‐Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting for Efficient Renewable Energy Storage journal December 2018
Enhancement of Selective Fixation of Dinitrogen to Ammonia under Modal Strong Coupling Conditions: Enhancement of Selective Fixation of Dinitrogen to Ammonia under Modal Strong Coupling Conditions journal February 2020
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Enhanced Electrocatalysis via Boosted Separation of Hot Charge Carriers of Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles Deposited on Reduced Graphene Oxide journal January 2019
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Silver-copper oxide heteronanostructures for the plasmonic-enhanced photocatalytic oxidation of N-hexane in the visible-NIR range text January 2019

Figures / Tables (4)