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Ligand‐Assisted Co‐Assembly Approach toward Mesoporous Hybrid Catalysts of Transition‐Metal Oxides and Noble Metals: Photochemical Water Splitting |
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| Authors: | Dr. Ben Liu Chung‐Hao Kuo Jiejie Chen Zhu Luo Srinivas Thanneeru Dr. Weikun Li Wenqiao Song Sourav Biswas Prof. Steven L. Suib Prof. Jie He |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA);2. Department of Chemistry, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China);3. Institute of Material Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA) |
| Abstract: | A bottom‐up synthetic approach was developed for the preparation of mesoporous transition‐metal‐oxide/noble‐metal hybrid catalysts through ligand‐assisted co‐assembly of amphiphilic block‐copolymer micelles and polymer‐tethered noble‐metal nanoparticles (NPs). The synthetic approach offers a general and straightforward method to precisely tune the sizes and loadings of noble‐metal NPs in metal oxides. This system thus provides a solid platform to clearly understand the role of noble‐metal NPs in photochemical water splitting. The presence of trace amounts of metal NPs (≈0.1 wt %) can enhance the photocatalytic activity for water splitting up to a factor of four. The findings can conceivably be applied to other semiconductors/noble‐metal catalysts, which may stand out as a new methodology to build highly efficient solar energy conversion systems. |
| Keywords: | mesoporous catalysts metal nanoparticles transition‐metal oxides tungsten oxide water splitting |