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Updated: Apr 8, 2026
Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Dipole field as charge-transfer bridge between Cu atomic clusters/PtCu alloy nanocubes and nitrogen-rich C3N5 for
Qianqian Liu1, Xing Du1, Ao Zhou1
1Suzhou Key Laboratory for Nanophotonic and Nanoelectronic Materials and Its Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, Jiangsu Province, China.
Abstract:
Utilizing spontaneous polarization field to harness charge transfer kinetics is a promising strategy to boost photocatalytic performance. Herein, a novel Cu atom clusters/PtCu alloy nanocubes coloaded on nitrogen-rich triazole-based C3N5 (PtCu-C3N5) with dipole field was constructed through facile photo-deposition and impregnation method. The dipole field-drive spontaneous polarization in C3N5 acts as a charge-transfer bridge to promote directional electron migration from C3N5 to Cu atom clusters/PtCu alloy. Through the synergistic effects between Cu atom clusters, PtCu alloy and dipole field in C3N5, the optimized Pt2Cu3-C3N5 achieved a record-high performance with H2 formation rate of 4090.4 μmol g-1 h-1 under visible light, about 154.4-fold increase compared with pristine C3N5 (26.5 μmol g-1 h-1). Moreover, the apparent quantum efficiency was up to 25.33 % at 320 nm, which is greatly superior than most previous related-works. The directional charge transfer mechanism was analyzed in detail through various characterizations and DFT calculations. This work offers a novel pathway to construct high-efficiency multi-metal photocatalysts for solar energy conversion.
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