Journal
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
Volume 22, Issue 7, Pages 2868-2877Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2jm15122g
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [20973039]
- Award Program for Minjiang Scholar Professorship
- Program for Changjiang Scholarship and Innovative Research Team in University [PCSIRT0818]
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2007CB613306]
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Gold nanoparticles (GNP) passivated by dithiolated diethylenetriaminepentaacetic (DTDTPA) linkers, GNP@DTDTPA, have been synthesized. The well-defined ZnO nanocomposite (GNP@DTDTPA/ZnO) functionalized by GNP@DTDTPA was prepared via a facile and green self-assembly approach. The specific interaction mechanism responsible for the self-assembly motif was elucidated by XPS, zeta potential and FTIR analysis. The self-assembly process was established primarily by a large amount of polar functional groups such as carboxyl (COOH), carbonyl (C=O), and amide (NH-C=O) groups in the DTDTPA profile, which impels GNP@DTDTPA to bind intrinsically with hydroxyl groups on the ZnO surface through hydrogen bonding interactions. On the other hand, the attractive electrostatic force between the negatively charged GNP@DTDTPA and the positively charged ZnO surface also contributes to the monodispersivity of GNP@DTDTPA on the ZnO support. The GNP/ZnO obtained after calcination of GNP@DTDTPA/ZnO retains the mono-distribution of GNP and exhibits more enhanced photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical performances compared to pure ZnO. We propose a possible mechanism that the well-distributed GNP could serve as an electron reservoir'' and improve the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. This method could provide a simple and straightforward approach for achieving a uniform distribution of noble-metal nanoparticles on the surface of semiconductors for versatile photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical applications.
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