Tailoring of the photocatalytic activity of CeO2 nanoparticles by the presence of plasmonic Ag nanoparticles

Abstract

Photocatalytic activity; Nanoparticles

Actividad fotocatalítica; Nanopartículas

Activitat fotocatalítica; Nanopartícules

The present study investigates basic features of a photoelectrochemical system based on CeO2 nanoparticles fixed on gold electrodes. Since photocurrent generation is limited to the absorption range of the CeO2 in the UV range, the combination with metal nanoparticles has been studied. It can be shown that the combination of silver nanoparticles with the CeO2 can shift the excitation range into the visible light wavelength range. Here a close contact between both components has been found to be essential and thus, hybrid CeO2@Ag nanoparticles have been prepared and analyzed. We have collected arguments that electron transfer occurs between both compositional elements of the hybrid nanoparticles.The photocurrent generation can be rationalized on the basis of an energy diagram underlying the necessity of surface plasmon excitation in the metal nanoparticles, which is also supported by wavelength-dependent photocurrent measurements. However, electrochemical reactions seem to occur at the CeO2 surface and consequently, the catalytic properties of this material can be exploited as exemplified with the photoelectrochemical reduction of hydrogen peroxide. It can be further demonstrated that the layer-by layer technique can be exploited to create a multilayer system on top of a gold electrode which allows the adjustment of the sensitivity of the photoelectrochemical system. Thus, with a 5-layer electrode with hybrid CeO2@Ag nanoparticles submicromolar hydrogen peroxide concentrations can be detected.

This work was supported by the Cluster of Excellence ‘Advanced Imaging of Matter’ of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – EXC 2056 – project ID 390715994. SZ acknowledges funding by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). NGB and VP acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU) (RTI2018-099965-B-I00, AEI/FEDER, UE). ICN2 is supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO (SEV-2017-0706) and is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. ZY acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61871240).