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All-solid-state Z-scheme in CdS–Au–TiO2 three-component nanojunction system

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 782–786 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Natural photosynthesis, which achieves efficient solar energy conversion through the combined actions of many types of molecules ingeniously arranged in a nanospace, highlights the importance of a technique for site-selective coupling of different materials to realize artificial high-efficiency devices1. In view of increasingly serious energy and environmental problems, semiconductor-based artificial photosynthetic systems consisting of isolated photochemical system 1 (PS1), PS2 and the electron-transfer system have recently been developed2,3. However, the direct coupling of the components is crucial for retarding back reactions to increase the reaction efficiency. Here, we report a simple technique for forming an anisotropic CdS–Au–TiO2 nanojunction, in which PS1(CdS), PS2(TiO2) and the electron-transfer system (Au) are spatially fixed. This three-component system exhibits a high photocatalytic activity, far exceeding those of the single- and two-component systems, as a result of vectorial electron transfer driven by the two-step excitation of TiO2 and CdS.

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Figure 1: Geometrical structure and composition of an Au–CdS composite nanoparticle formed on TiO2, and time evolution of the CdS shell layer.
Figure 2: Optical properties of Au@CdS/TiO2.
Figure 3: Photocatalytic activity of Au@CdS/TiO2.
Figure 4: Energy band diagram scheme of the CdS–Au–TiO2 system.

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Acknowledgements

H.T. thanks T. Kawahara for discussions throughout this work. This work was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) No. 16550169 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sport, and Culture, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Kinki University, 3-4-1, Kowakae, Higashi-Osaka, Osaka, 577-8502, Japan

    Hiroaki Tada, Tomohiro Mitsui & Tomokazu Kiyonaga

  2. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Midorigaoka 1-8-31, Ikeda, Osaka, 563-8577, Japan

    Tomoki Akita & Koji Tanaka

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  1. Hiroaki Tada
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  3. Tomokazu Kiyonaga
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Contributions

H.T.: project planning, data analysis. T.M. and T.K.: experimental work (electronic absorption spectra, TEM and photocatalytic reactions). T.A. and K.T.: experimental work (HRTEM and EELS).

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Correspondence to Hiroaki Tada.

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Tada, H., Mitsui, T., Kiyonaga, T. et al. All-solid-state Z-scheme in CdS–Au–TiO2 three-component nanojunction system. Nature Mater 5, 782–786 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1734

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