title: Hot-electron-transfer enhancement for the efficient energy conversion of visible light.
abstract: Great strides have been made in enhancing solar energy conversion by utilizing plasmonic nanostructures in semiconductors. However, current generation with plasmonic nanostructures is still somewhat inefficient owing to the ultrafast decay of plasmon-induced hot electrons. It is now shown that the ultrafast decay of hot electrons across Au nanoparticles can be significantly reduced by strong coupling with CdS quantum dots and by a Schottky junction with perovskite SrTiO3 nanoparticles. The designed plasmonic nanostructure with three distinct components enables a hot-electron-assisted energy cascade for electron transfer, CdS→Au→SrTiO3, as demonstrated by steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. Consequently, hot-electron transfer enabled the efficient production of H2 from water as well as significant electron harvesting under irradiation with visible light of various wavelengths. These findings provide a new approach for overcoming the low efficiency that is typically associated with plasmonic nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: World Class University Program of Chemical Convergence for Energy & Environment, School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742 (Republic of Korea) http://empl.snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Sungju
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yong Hwa
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Su Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hyeon Don
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jongheop
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yi
keywords: kinetics; nanomaterials; photocatalysis; solar energy conversion; surface plasmon resonance