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Published on: September 8, 2023
Chiral Au@CeO2 Helical Nanorods with Spatially Separated Structures for Polarization-Dependent N2 Photofixation
Fang Wang1, Weimin Yang1, Qi Ding1
1International Joint Research Center for Photo-responsive Molecules and Materials, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214122, P.R. China.
Abstract:
Chiral photocatalytic nanomaterials possess numerous unique properties and hold promise for various applications in chemical synthesis, environmental protection, energy conversion, and photoelectric devices. Nevertheless, it is uncommon to develop effective means to enhance the asymmetric catalytic performances of chiral plasmonic nanomaterials. In this study, a type of L/D-Au@CeO2 helical nanorods (HNRs) was fabricated by selectively growing CeO2 on the surface of Au HNRs via a facile wet-chemistry construction method. Chiral Au@CeO2 HNRs, featuring Au and CeO2 with spatially separated structures, exhibited the highest photocatalytic performance for N2 fixation, being 50.80±2.64 times greater than that of Au HNRs. Furthermore, when L-Au@CeO2 HNRs were exposed to left circularly polarized light (CPL) and D-Au@CeO2 HNRs were exposed to right CPL, their photocatalytic efficiency was enhanced by 3.06±0.06 times compared to the samples illuminated with the opposite CPL, which can be attributed to the asymmetrical generation of hot carriers upon CPL excitation. This study not only offers a simple approach to enhance the photocatalytic performance of chiral plasmonic nanomaterials but also demonstrates the potential of chiral plasmonic materials for application in specific photocatalytic reactions, such as N2 fixation.
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