Black titania by sonochemistry: A critical evaluation of existing methods

In the field of photocatalysis, the fabrication of black titania is a booming topic, as it offers a system with improved solar light harvesting properties and increased overall efficiency. The darkening of white TiO2 powders can be ascribed to surface hydroxylation, oxygen vacancies, Ti3+ centres, or a combination thereof. A handful of studies suggests these defects can be conveniently introduced by acoustic cavitation, generated during sonochemical treatment of pristine TiO2 powders. In reproducing these studies, P25 TiO2 samples were ultrasonicated for various hours with a power density of 8000 W/L, resulting in powders that indeed became gradually darker with increasing sonication time. However, HAADF-STEM revealed that extensive erosion of the sonotrode tip took place and contaminated the samples, which appeared to be the primary reason for the observed colour change. This was confirmed by UV-Vis DRS and DRIFTS, that showed no significant alteration of the catalyst surface after sonication. EPR measurements showed that only an insignificant fraction of Ti3+ centres were produced, far less than in a TiO2 sample that was chemically reduced with NaBH4. No evidence of the presence oxygen vacancies could be found. The enhanced photocatalytic activities of ultrasonicated materials reported in literature can therefore not be ascribed to the synthesis of actual black (defected) TiO2, but rather to specific changes in morphology as a result of acoustic cavitation. Also, this study underlines the importance of considering probe erosion in sonochemical catalyst synthesis, which is an unavoidable side effect that can have an important impact on the catalyst appearance, properties and performance.

Sunlight-Powered Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction Catalysed by Plasmonic Au/TiO2 Nanocatalysts: Effects of Au Particle Size on the Activity and Selectivity

This study reports the low temperature and low pressure conversion (up to 160 °C, p = 3.5 bar) of CO₂ and H₂ to CO using plasmonic Au/TiO₂ nanocatalysts and mildly concentrated artificial sunlight as the sole energy source (up to 13.9 kW·m^-2 = 13.9 suns). To distinguish between photothermal and non-thermal contributors, we investigated the impact of the Au nanoparticle size and light intensity on the activity and selectivity of the catalyst. A comparative study between P25 TiO₂-supported Au nanocatalysts of a size of 6 nm and 16 nm displayed a 15 times higher activity for the smaller particles, which can only partially be attributed to the higher Au surface area. Other factors that may play a role are e.g., the electronic contact between Au and TiO₂ and the ratio between plasmonic absorption and scattering. Both catalysts displayed ≥84% selectivity for CO (side product is CH₄). Furthermore, we demonstrated that the catalytic activity of Au/TiO₂ increases exponentially with increasing light intensity, which indicated the presence of a photothermal contributor. In dark, however, both Au/TiO₂ catalysts solely produced CH₄ at the same catalyst bed temperature (160 °C). We propose that the difference in selectivity is caused by the promotion of CO desorption through charge transfer of plasmon generated charges (as a non-thermal contributor).

Probing oxygen activation on plasmonic photocatalysts

In this work we present an assay to probe the oxygen activation rate on plasmonic nanoparticles under visible light. Using a superoxide-specific XTT molecular probe, the oxygen activation rate on bimetallic gold-silver “rainbow” nanoparticles with a broadband visible light (> 420 nm) response, is determined at different light intensities by measuring its conversion into the colored XTT-formazan derivate. A kinetic model is applied to enable a quantitative estimation of the rate constant, and is shown to match almost perfectly with the experimental data. Next, the broadband visible light driven oxygen activation capacity of this plasmonic rainbow system, supported on nano-sized SiO₂, is demonstrated towards the oxidation of aniline to azobenzene in DMSO. To conclude, a brief theoretical discussion is devoted to the possible mechanisms behind such plasmon-driven reactions.

Plasmonic Hybrid Nanostructures in Photocatalysis: Structures, Mechanisms, and Applications

(Sun)Light is an abundantly available sustainable source of energy that has been used in catalyzing chemical reactions for several decades now. In particular, studies related to the interaction of light with plasmonic nanostructures have been receiving increased attention. These structures display the unique property of localized surface plasmon resonance, which converts light of a specific wavelength range into hot charge carriers, along with strong local electromagnetic fields, and/or heat, which may all enhance the reaction efficiency in their own way. These unique properties of plasmonic nanoparticles can be conveniently tuned by varying the metal type, size, shape, and dielectric environment, thus prompting a research focus on rationally designed plasmonic hybrid nanostructures. In this review, the term "hybrid" implies nanomaterials that consist of multiple plasmonic or non-plasmonic materials, forming complex configurations in the geometry and/or at the atomic level. We discuss the synthetic techniques and evolution of such hybrid plasmonic nanostructures giving rise to a wide variety of material and geometric configurations. Bimetallic alloys, which result in a new set of opto-physical parameters, are compared with core-shell configurations. For the latter, the use of metal, semiconductor, and polymer shells is reviewed. Also, more complex structures such as Janus and antenna reactor composites are discussed. This review further summarizes the studies exploiting plasmonic hybrids to elucidate the plasmonic-photocatalytic mechanism. Finally, we review the implementation of these plasmonic hybrids in different photocatalytic application domains such as H₂ generation, CO₂ reduction, water purification, air purification, and disinfection.

Selectivity in the Ligand Functionalization of Photocatalytic Metal Oxide Nanoparticles for Phase Transfer and Self-Assembly Applications

The functionalization of photocatalytic metal oxide nanoparticles of TiO₂ , ZnO, WO₃ and CuO with amine-terminated (oleylamine) and thiol-terminated (dodecane-1-thiol) alkyl-chain ligands was studied under ambient conditions. A high selectivity was observed in the binding specificity of a ligand towards nanoparticles of these different oxides. It was observed that oleylamine binds stably to only TiO₂ and WO₃ , whereas dodecane-1-thiol binds stably only to ZnO and CuO. Similarly, polar-to-nonpolar solvent phase transfer of TiO₂ and WO₃ nanoparticles could be achieved by using oleylamine, but not dodecane-1-thiol, whereas the opposite holds for ZnO and CuO. The surface chemistry of ligand-functionalized nanoparticles was probed by attenuated total reflectance (ATR)-FTIR spectroscopy, which enabled the occupation of the ligands at the active sites to be elucidated. The photostability of the ligands on the nanoparticle surface was determined by the photocatalytic self-cleaning properties of the material. Although TiO₂ and WO₃ degrade the ligands within 24 h under both UV and visible light, ligands on ZnO and CuO remain unaffected. The gathered insights are also highly relevant from an application point of view. As an example, because the ligand-functionalized nanoparticles are hydrophobic in nature, they can be self-assembled at the air-water interface to give nanoparticle films with demonstrated photocatalytic as well as anti-fogging properties.