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Updated: May 4, 2026

Synthesis and Catalytic Performance of Gold Intercalated in the Walls of Mesoporous Silica
Published on: July 9, 2015
Hot-electron-induced dissociation of H2 on gold nanoparticles supported on SiO2
Shaunak Mukherjee1, Linan Zhou, Amanda M Goodman
1Department of Chemistry, †Department of Physics and Astronomy, #Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and ‡Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Rice University , 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
Abstract:
Hot-electron-induced photodissociation of H2 was demonstrated on small Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) supported on SiO2. The rate of dissociation of H2 was found to be almost 2 orders of magnitude higher than that observed on equivalently prepared AuNPs on TiO2. The rate of H2 dissociation was found to be linearly dependent on illumination intensity with a wavelength dependence resembling the absorption spectrum of the plasmon of the AuNPs. This result provides strong additional support for the hot-electron-induced mechanism for H2 dissociation in this photocatalytic system.
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