title: In situ plasmonic Ag nanoparticle anchored TiO2 nanotube arrays as visible-light-driven photocatalysts for enhanced water splitting.
abstract: An ultrasonication-assisted in situ deposition strategy was utilised to uniformly decorate plasmonic Ag nanoparticles on vertically aligned TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs) to construct a Ag@TiO2 NTA composite. The Ag nanoparticles act as efficient surface plasmon resonance (SPR) photosensitizers to drive photocatalytic water splitting under visible light irradiation. The Ag nanoparticles were uniformly deposited on the surface and inside the highly oriented TiO2 nanotubes. The visible-light-driven hydrogen production activities of silver nanoparticle anchored TiO2 nanotube array photocatalysts were evaluated using methanol as a sacrificial reagent in water under a 500 W Xe lamp with a UV light cutoff filter (λ ≥ 420 nm). It was found that the hydrogen production rate of the Ag@TiO2 NTAs prepared with ultrasonication-assisted deposition for 5 min was approximately 15 times higher than that of its pristine TiO2 NTAs counterpart. The highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is attributed to the SPR effect of Ag for enhanced visible light absorption and boosting the photogenerated electron-hole separation/transfer. This strategy is promising for the design and construction of high efficiency TiO2 based photocatalysts for solar energy conversion.
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. jyhuang81@suda.edu.cn kqzhang@suda.edu.cn yklai@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ming-Zheng
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. jyhuang81@suda.edu.cn kqzhang@suda.edu.cn yklai@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chun-Yan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. jyhuang81@suda.edu.cn kqzhang@suda.edu.cn yklai@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shu-Hui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yu-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Lu-Ning
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. jyhuang81@suda.edu.cn kqzhang@suda.edu.cn yklai@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. jyhuang81@suda.edu.cn kqzhang@suda.edu.cn yklai@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. jyhuang81@suda.edu.cn kqzhang@suda.edu.cn yklai@suda.edu.cn and Research Center of Cooperative Innovation for Functional Organic/Polymer Material Micro/Nanofabrication, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China.
authors.forename: Ke-Qin
authors.initials: KQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Petrochemical Research Chair, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Al-Deyab
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. jyhuang81@suda.edu.cn kqzhang@suda.edu.cn yklai@suda.edu.cn and Research Center of Cooperative Innovation for Functional Organic/Polymer Material Micro/Nanofabrication, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China.
authors.forename: Yue-Kun
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Lai