@article{3dfaa2be102345d4b105a6951a582726,
title = "Enhanced photocatalytic activity through anchoring and size effects of Au nanoparticles on niobate nanotubes and nanosheets for water splitting",
abstract = "The inorganic semiconducting potassium hexaniobate (K4Nb6O17) has a wide band gap of 3.4 eV and has been widely studied as a photocatalyst activated by the ultraviolet part of the solar spectrum. In this study, we have prepared nanotubes and nanosheets of H4Nb6O17 and attached Au nanoparticles of two different sizes to both. The resultant composites are characterised and their activity towards H2 generation by photocatalytic water splitting is investigated. We found that the morphology of the nano-niobate had minimal effect for the Au particles attached directly to the niobate, however for the (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) anchored Au particles a marked difference in their activities towards water splitting was observed. The APTES-Au-nanosheets produced a maximum volume of hydrogen of 1384.3 μmol g−1 h−1, which was much higher than the 36.9 μmol g−1 h−1 for the parent niobate nanotubes. Morphology and different interaction were considered as the main factors affecting photocatalytic efficiency.",
keywords = "lspr, Nanomaterials, Photocatalysis, Surface modification",
author = "Shiqi Zhao and Xiaorong Cheng and Anthony Centeno and Graham Dawson",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by Suzhou Institute of Industrial Technology Research Fund (Grant No. SGYKJ201705 and 2017kyqd010 ), Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University Research Development Fund . National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21650110446 ). Funding Information: In Fig. 1 (d) and (e), the morphology of R-Au-NbNT is shown. Several large Au nanoparticles can be seen on the surface of the nanotubes. In Fig. 1 (f), the HRTEM image shows the Au (111) plane lattice fringes, measured as 0.235 nm [30]. The Au particles have an average diameter of 27.03 nm (see Table S1 in supporting information). The gold nanoparticles show a range of sizes and are well distributed on the niobate nanotubes, also shown by the lower maginification images in Fig. S3a. The interaction between the Au nanoparticles and niobate is electrostatic, as shown from the zeta potential results in Fig. S4. From Fig. 1 (g) and (h), the morphology of APTES-Au-NbNS can be seen. In this sample nanosheets are the predominant morphology. Coating can be observed on the surface of AuNPs. A lot of small gold particles are observed evenly dispersed on the surface of niobate sheets, further examples of this are shown in Fig. S3 b. From the reaction conditions, the coating should be composed of oligomers hydrolyzed by APTES [29]. The Au (111) plane is also observed in this sample, as shown in Fig. 1 (i). The average diameter of the APTES gold nanoparticles is 4.3 nm (see Table S1 in supporting information), which is well controlled and uniform due to the protection of the coating. The TEM images of the R-Au-NbNS and APTES-Au-NbNT are shown in the supporting information for comparison [Fig. S5]. The crystallinity of the parent nano niobate is shown in Fig. S6.This work was supported by Suzhou Institute of Industrial Technology Research Fund (Grant No. SGYKJ201705 and 2017kyqd010), Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University Research Development Fund. National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.21650110446). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 Elsevier B.V.",
year = "2023",
month = may,
doi = "10.1016/j.optmat.2023.113753",
language = "English",
volume = "139",
journal = "Optical Materials",
issn = "0925-3467",
}
