Electron Transfer of the Metal/Semiconductor System in Photocatalysis
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
KAUST Solar Center (KSC)Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Research
SABIC - Corporate Research and Innovation Center (CRI) at KAUST
Date
2018-07-10Online Publication Date
2018-07-10Print Publication Date
2018-07-26Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/631643
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Probing into the relationship between charge carrier dynamics and photocatalytic reactions is central to the understanding and therefore the design of photocatalysts. We have studied the charge carrier lifetime of Pt/CN and compared it to that of CN alone using femtosecond pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy in the 500-900 nm signal range. Parallel photocatalytic reactions were also conducted to link the extracted lifetime to the corresponding rates of hydrogen production from water. The presence of Pt (with a mean particle size of ca. 2.5 nm) on CN decreased the lifetime of excited electrons in the conduction band (CB). This has occurred in pure water as well as in the presence of the organic sacrificial agent used. These results suggest that Pt particles on this n-type semiconductor act as electron trap centers (either by pumping away CB electrons or by creating trap centers at the interface). The corresponding increase in reaction rates can be linked to this electron transfer.Citation
Khan MA, Maity P, Al-Oufi M, Al-Howaish IK, Idriss H (2018) Electron Transfer of the Metal/Semiconductor System in Photocatalysis. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 122: 16779–16787. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b03741.Sponsors
The authors thank Shahid Bashir (SABIC-KAUST) for conducting the BET surface area measurements and Lutfan Sinatra (KAUST) for further TEM images.Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)Additional Links
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b03741ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b03741