title: Ligand-Assisted Co-Assembly Approach toward Mesoporous Hybrid Catalysts of Transition-Metal Oxides and Noble Metals: Photochemical Water Splitting.
abstract: A bottom-up synthetic approach was developed for the preparation of mesoporous transition-metal-oxide/noble-metal hybrid catalysts through ligand-assisted co-assembly of amphiphilic block-copolymer micelles and polymer-tethered noble-metal nanoparticles (NPs). The synthetic approach offers a general and straightforward method to precisely tune the sizes and loadings of noble-metal NPs in metal oxides. This system thus provides a solid platform to clearly understand the role of noble-metal NPs in photochemical water splitting. The presence of trace amounts of metal NPs (≈0.1 wt %) can enhance the photocatalytic activity for water splitting up to a factor of four. The findings can conceivably be applied to other semiconductors/noble-metal catalysts, which may stand out as a new methodology to build highly efficient solar energy conversion systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA).
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA).
authors.forename: Chung-Hao
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China).
authors.forename: Jiejie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Material Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA).
authors.forename: Zhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA).
authors.forename: Srinivas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thanneeru
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA).
authors.forename: Weikun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA).
authors.forename: Wenqiao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA).
authors.forename: Sourav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA). steven.suib@uconn.edu.|Institute of Material Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA). steven.suib@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Suib
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA). jie.he@uconn.edu.|Institute of Material Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 (USA). jie.he@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
keywords: mesoporous catalysts; metal nanoparticles; transition-metal oxides; tungsten oxide; water splitting