Designing Novel Nonsymmetric Ag/AgI Nanoplates for Superior Photocatalytic Activity

Misbah Ullah Khan; Hongjun You; Xiaotong Liu; Lingling Zhang; Jixiang Fang

doi:10.1002/smll.201702948

Designing Novel Nonsymmetric Ag/AgI Nanoplates for Superior Photocatalytic Activity

Small. 2018 Feb;14(8). doi: 10.1002/smll.201702948. Epub 2018 Jan 10.

Authors

Misbah Ullah Khan¹, Hongjun You¹, Xiaotong Liu¹, Lingling Zhang¹, Jixiang Fang¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Physical Electronics and Devices of Ministry of Education, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China.

PMID: 29320611
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201702948

Abstract

Precisely engineering the decoration of metal nanoparticles on the special surface of semiconductor represents a promising strategy to design efficient metal-semiconductor heterostructured photocatalysts. This study demonstrates a versatile soft-template method to fabricate a novel nonsymmetrical heterostructured Ag/AgI nanoplate, in which only one side surface of the nanoplate is covered with uniform 2D Ag nanoweb. Compared with symmetrical heterostructure, the nonsymmetrical heterostructure may further facilitate the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and shows a greatly enhanced photocatalytic activity. This study may open up a new way to improve the photocatalytic property by synthesizing nonsymmetrical metal-semiconductor composites.

Keywords: metal-semiconductor heterostructures; nanoplates; nonsymmetric structures; photocatalysis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't