title: Hollow Au-Cu2O Core-Shell Nanoparticles with Geometry-Dependent Optical Properties as Efficient Plasmonic Photocatalysts under Visible Light.
abstract: Hollow Au-Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles were synthesized by using hollow gold nanoparticles (HGNs) as the plasmon-tailorable cores to direct epitaxial growth of Cu2O nanoshells. The effective geometry control of hollow Au-Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles was achieved through adjusting the HGN core sizes, Cu2O shell thicknesses, and morphologies related to structure-directing agents. The morphology-dependent plasmonic band red-shifts across the visible and near-infrared spectral regions were observed from experimental extinction spectra and theoretical simulation based on the finite-difference time-domain method. Moreover, the hollow Au-Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles with synergistic optical properties exhibited higher photocatalytic performance in the photodegradation of methyl orange when compared to pristine Cu2O and solid Au-Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles under visible-light irradiation due to the efficient photoinduced charge separation, which could mainly be attributed to the Schottky barrier and plasmon-induced resonant energy transfer. Such optical tunability achieved through the hollow cores and structure-directed shells is of benefit to the performance optimization of metal-semiconductor nanoparticles for photonic, electronic, and photocatalytic applications.
authors.affiliation: Center for Optoelectronics Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University , Hangzhou 310018, China.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Center for Optoelectronics Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University , Hangzhou 310018, China.|State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Aiping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education & Zhejiang Province, Key Laboratory of E&M, Zhejiang University of Technology , Hangzhou 310014, China.
authors.forename: Huaping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Center for Optoelectronics Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University , Hangzhou 310018, China.
authors.forename: Qiuping
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Center for Optoelectronics Materials and Devices, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University , Hangzhou 310018, China.
authors.forename: Tingyu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Modern Engineering Mechanics, Department of Mechanics, Tianjin University , Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Jianshan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang