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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Light-driven Enzymatic Decarboxylation
Published on: May 22, 2016
Red-Light-Driven Water Splitting by Au(Core)-CdS(Shell) Half-Cut Nanoegg with Heteroepitaxial Junction
Shin-Ichi Naya1, Takahiro Kume2, Ryo Akashi2
1Environmental Research Laboratory, Kindai University , 3-4-1, Kowakae, Higashi-Osaka, Osaka 577-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
A key material for artificial photosynthesis including water splitting is heteronanostructured (HNS) photocatalysts. The photocatalytic activity depends on the geometry and dimension, and the quality of junctions between the components. Here we present a half-cut Au(core)-CdS(shell) (HC-Au@CdS) nanoegg as a new HNS plasmonic photocatalyst for water splitting. UV-light irradiation of Au nanoparticle (NP)-loaded ZnO (Au/ZnO) at 50 °C induces the selective deposition of hexagonal CdS on the Au surface of Au/ZnO with an epitaxial (EPI) relation of CdS{0001}/Au{111}. The subsequent selective dissolution of the ZnO support at room temperature yields HC-Au@CdS with the Au NP size and EPI junction (#) retained. Red-light irradiation (λex = 640 nm) of HC-Au@#CdS gives rise to continuous stoichiometric water splitting with an unprecedentedly high external quantum yield of 0.24%.
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