title: Sub-10 nm rutile titanium dioxide nanoparticles for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production.
abstract: Titanium dioxide is a promising photocatalyst for water splitting, but it suffers from low visible light activity due to its wide band gap. Doping can narrow the band gap of titanium dioxide; however, new charge-carrier recombination centres may be introduced. Here we report the design of sub-10 nm rutile titanium dioxide nanoparticles, with an increased amount of surface/sub-surface defects to overcome the negative effects from bulk defects. Abundant defects can not only shift the top of the valence band of rutile titanium dioxide upwards for band-gap narrowing but also promote charge-carrier separation. The role of titanium(III) is to enhance, rather than initiate, the visible-light-driven water splitting. The sub-10 nm rutile nanoparticles exhibit the state-of-the-art activity among titanium dioxide-based semiconductors for visible-light-driven water splitting and the concept of ultra-small nanoparticles with abundant defects may be extended to the design of other robust semiconductor photocatalysts.
authors.affiliation: 1] Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China [2] Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Landong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1] Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China [2] Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Junqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: 1] Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China [2] Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Tuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1] Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China [2] Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Jian
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of New Energy Technology, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, Ningbo 315201, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1] Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China [2] Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: 1] Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China [2] Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Naijia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Guan