Plasmonic gold sensitization of ZnO nanowires for solar water splitting

This paper reports the synthesis of plasmonic gold sensitized ZnO nanowires by chemical vapor deposition and subsequent photoreduction method. The well sensitization of Au nanoparticles with mean diameter of 5.3 nm on ZnO nanowires yield a higher photocurrent density of 1.06 mAcm(-2) than ZnO nanowires (0.51 mAcm(-2)) under illumination. Accordingly, Au nanoparticles on ZnO nanowires reveals the maximum photoelectrochemical water splitting efficiency of 0.45% at + 0.8 V-RHE, which is higher than the ZnO nanowires (0.22% at + 0.8 V-RHE). The enhanced photocurrent density and efficiency is due to the effective charge separation and transportation originating from metal support interaction, 1D nanostructure as well as surface plasmon resonance effect of Au nanoparticles.