Strain-induced bimetallic nanoparticles-TiO2 nanohybrids for harvesting light energy

One dimensional oxide-based hybrid nanostructures have immense potential for next generation energy applications. By considering that, the present work dwells into interfacial interaction in strain induced bimetallic nanoparticles-TiO2 nanohybrids for photo energy harvesting. The hybrid nanostructure system consists of bimetallic nanoparticles (Pd-Pt, Cu-Pd, Ag-Au)/TiO2 nanostructures (MNPs/TiNs). The different pathways are used to craft Cu-Pd and Pd-Pt on TiNs in comparison to Ag-Au. The crafting of MNPs on TiNs has been found effectual to modify the interface and hence electronic structure of MNPs/TiNs as evident by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The detailed analysis in to the strains induced in the hybrid system is investigated using micro-Raman spectroscopy and is corroborated with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and XPS studies. The analysis revealed that the crafting of the bimetallic nanoparticles in the TiNs induce compressive strains that improve the charge separation at the interface. The strain induced hybrids are further explored for photocatalysis. It is observed that overall photocatalytic light harvesting of compressively strained Ag-Au/TiNs system is better than Cu-Pd/TiNs and Pd-Pt/TiNs owing to better charge separation at the interface. The time dependence of the photo-degradation using a model compound is also studied and the system is found to be following pseudo-first order kinetics.