The synergistic effect of a well-defined Au@Pt core-shell nanostructure toward photocatalytic hydrogen generation: interface engineering to improve the Schottky barrier and hydrogen-evolved kinetics

A well-defined co-catalyst system TiO2 nanotube-Au (core)-Pt (shell) was demonstrated to be the combination of the localized surface plasmon effect of gold and excellent proton reduction nature of platinum. Furthermore, surface engineering by the descending Fermi energies of gold and platinum was beneficial to electron transfer.