Defect state-induced efficient hot electron transfer in Au nanoparticles/reduced TiO2 mesocrystal photocatalysts

We investigated Au/TiO2 mesocrystals as plasmonic photocatalyst prototypes using single-particle photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy combined with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, and found that introduction of defect states builds up a channel for hot electrons with energies lower than the Schottky barrier height to transfer to the semiconductor.