Chem. J. Chinese Universities ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (7): 1638.doi: 10.7503/cjcu20200092

• Physical Chemistry • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Fractal, Plasmonic Black Gold for Hot Electron Catalysis

YU Renpeng,HAN Mei,ZHANG Mengyao,LIU Jianfang,LI Moxia,HU Jiawen*()   

  1. State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan Key Laboratory of Two-dimensional Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
  • Received:2020-02-21 Online:2020-07-10 Published:2020-04-02
  • Contact: HU Jiawen E-mail:jwhu@hnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    † National Natural Science Foundation of China(21673070);National Natural Science Foundation of China(21872047);Open Project of Physics Chemical of Solid Surfaces from Xiamen University, China(201913)

Abstract:

This study takes the advantage of the overcurrent “burning” phenomenon in electroplating industry to prepare plasmonic black gold using one-step overcurrent electrodeposition. The characterization results of scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and ultraviolet-visible-near infrared absorption spectroscopy reveal that the black gold shows a three-dimensional fractal nanostructure composed of polycrystalline gold, which can absorb light over a broad-band range of 400—1800 nm. The results of methanol electrocatalytic oxidation show that the overall electrocatalytic efficiency of the black gold can be enhanced by 15.2% under light illumination from a Xe lamp, suggesting good hot electron catalytic activity. The improvement of the catalytic performance is mainly contributed to the plasmon-generated hot electrons, with minor contribution from the increased temperature. Under monochromatic light illumination with different wavelengthes, the black Au shows no obvious variation in the catalytic efficiency, suggesting its light utilization capability has no apparent dependence on the wavelength of the illumination light.

Key words: Plasmon, Black gold, Broad band absorption, Hot electron, Photocatalysis

CLC Number: 

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