Direct and broadband plasmonic charge transfer to enhance water oxidation on a gold electrode

Graf, Matthias; Vonbun-Feldbauer, Gregor; Koper, Marc T. M.

doi:10.15480/882.3462

Direct and broadband plasmonic charge transfer to enhance water oxidation on a gold electrode

Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.3462

Publikationstyp

Journal Article

Date Issued

2021-02-23

Sprache

English

Author(s)

Graf, Matthias

Vonbun-Feldbauer, Gregor

Koper, Marc T. M.

Institut

Keramische Hochleistungswerkstoffe M-9

TORE-DOI

10.15480/882.3462

TORE-URI

http://hdl.handle.net/11420/9342

Journal

ACS nano

Volume

15

Issue

2

Start Page

3188

End Page

3200

Citation

ACS Nano 15 (2): 3188-3200 (2021-02-23)

Publisher DOI

10.1021/acsnano.0c09776

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85100661093

PubMed ID

33496564

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Plasmonic photocatalysis via hot charge carriers suffers from their short lifetime compared with the sluggish kinetics of most reactions. To increase lifetime, adsorbates on the surface of a plasmonic metal may create preferential states for electrons to be excited from. We demonstrate this effect with O adsorbates on a nanoporous gold electrode. Nanoporous gold is used to obtain a broadband optical response, to increase the obtained photocurrent, and to provide a SERS-active substrate. Only with adsorbates present, we observe significant photocurrents. Illumination also increases the adsorbate coverage above its dark potential-dependent equilibrium, as derived from a two-laser in situ SERS approach. Density functional theory calculations confirm the appearance of excitable states below the Fermi level. The photocurrent enhancement and broadband characteristics reveal the potential of the plasmonic approach to improve the efficiency of photoelectrochemical water splitting.