title: Hot-electron-induced dissociation of H2 on gold nanoparticles supported on SiO2.
abstract: Hot-electron-induced photodissociation of H2 was demonstrated on small Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) supported on SiO2. The rate of dissociation of H2 was found to be almost 2 orders of magnitude higher than that observed on equivalently prepared AuNPs on TiO2. The rate of H2 dissociation was found to be linearly dependent on illumination intensity with a wavelength dependence resembling the absorption spectrum of the plasmon of the AuNPs. This result provides strong additional support for the hot-electron-induced mechanism for H2 dissociation in this photocatalytic system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, †Department of Physics and Astronomy, #Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and ‡Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Rice University , 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
authors.forename: Shaunak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: Linan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Amanda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Large
authors.forename: Ciceron
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ayala-Orozco
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nordlander
authors.forename: Naomi J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Halas