title: UV and visible light photocatalytic activity of Au/TiO2nanoforests with Anatase/Rutile phase junctions and controlled Au locations.
abstract: To magnify anatase/rutile phase junction effects through appropriate Au decorations, a facile solution-based approach was developed to synthesize Au/TiO2nanoforests with controlled Au locations. The nanoforests cons®isted of anatase nanowires surrounded by radially grown rutile branches, on which Au nanoparticles were deposited with preferred locations controlled by simply altering the order of the fabrication step. The Au-decoration increased the photocatalytic activity under the illumination of either UV or visible light, because of the beneficial effects of either electron trapping or localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Gold nanoparticles located preferably at the interface of anatase/rutile led to a further enhanced photocatalytic activity. The appropriate distributions of Au nanoparticles magnify the beneficial effects arising from the anatase/rutile phase junctions when illuminated by UV light. Under the visible light illumination, the LSPR effect followed by the consecutive electron transfer explains the enhanced photocatalysis. This study provides a facile route to control locations of gold nanoparticles in one-dimensional nanostructured arrays of multiple-phases semiconductors for achieving a further increased photocatalytic activity.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xin-Yue
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jia-Bin
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jin-Ming
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wu