PdO/TiO2 and Pd/TiO2 heterostructured nanobelts with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Weijia Zhou; Yu Guan; Dongzhou Wang; Xinhai Zhang; Duo Liu; Huaidong Jiang; Jiyang Wang; Xiaogang Liu; Hong Liu; Shaowei Chen

doi:10.1002/asia.201301638

PdO/TiO2 and Pd/TiO2 heterostructured nanobelts with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Chem Asian J. 2014 Jun;9(6):1648-54. doi: 10.1002/asia.201301638. Epub 2014 Apr 22.

Authors

Weijia Zhou¹, Yu Guan, Dongzhou Wang, Xinhai Zhang, Duo Liu, Huaidong Jiang, Jiyang Wang, Xiaogang Liu, Hong Liu, Shaowei Chen

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Center of Bio&Micro/Nano Functional Materials, Shandong University, 27 South Shanda Road, Jinan 250100 (China); New Energy Research Center, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, University Town, Guangzhou 510006 (China).

PMID: 24756967
DOI: 10.1002/asia.201301638

Abstract

Heterostructures play an important role not only in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, but also in the field of catalysis. Herein, we report the synthesis of PdO/TiO2 and Pd/TiO2 heterostructured nanobelts by means of a simple co-precipitation method, followed by a reduction process using surface-modified TiO2 nanobelts as templates. The as-obtained heterostructures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV/Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. PdO and Pd nanoparticles with a size of about 1.3 and 1.6 nm were assembled uniformly on the surface of TiO2 nanobelts, respectively. Compared with TiO2 nanobelts, PdO/TiO2 and Pd/TiO2 hybrid nanobelts exhibit enhanced photocatalytic activity upon UV and visible-light irradiation. Photoelectrochemical technology was used to study the heterostructure effect on enhanced photocatalytic activity. Our mechanistic investigation revealed that energy-band matching is the major factor in the observed enhancement of photocatalytic activity.

Keywords: heterostructures; nanostructures; palladium; photochemistry; titanium.