Au/Pt nanoparticle-decorated TiO₂ nanofibers with plasmon-enhanced photocatalytic activities for solar-to-fuel conversion

We present the fabrication of TiO₂ nanofibers codecorated with Au and Pt nanoparticles through facile electrospinning. The Au and Pt nanoparticles with sizes of 5-12 nm are well-dispersed in the TiO₂ nanofibers as evidenced by electron microscopic analyses. The present design of Au/Pt codecoration in the TiO₂ nanofibers leads to remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activities on both hydrogen generation and CO ₂ reduction. This great enhancement is attributed to the synergy of electron-sink function of Pt and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Au nanoparticles, which significantly improves charge separation of photoexcited TiO₂. Our studies demonstrate that through rational design of composite nanostructures one can harvest visible light through the SPR effect to enhance the photocatalytic activities of semiconductors initiated by UV-light to more effectively utilize the whole solar spectrum for energy conversion.