Tuning non-plasmonic metals to high performance photocatalysts

该项目旨在开发具有增强光吸收的非等离子体、过渡金属基光催化剂，以实现有机合成中辐照可控的产物选择性。该项目展示了中空颗粒形态合金纳米结构如何增强光催化活性。具有中空形态的合金结构如铱-镍（IrNi）、铱-钴（IrCo）和铱-锡（IrSn）纳米颗粒分别表现出比它们的单独组分Ir、Ni、Co和Sn显著增加的光催化活性。该项目预计将扩大光催化剂的应用，并产生可用于从非等离子体金属设计高效光催化剂的知识。预期的好处是在合成催化和将太阳能转化为化学能等领域的应用方面产生新的知识和能力。

This project aims to develop non-plasmonic, transition metal-based, photocatalysts with enhanced light absorption, to achieve irradiation controllable product selectivity in organic synthesis. The project demonstrates how hollow-particle morphology alloy nano-structures can enhance photocatalytic activity. Alloy structures such as iridium-nickel (IrNi), iridium-cobalt (IrCo) and iridium-tin (IrSn) nanoparticles with a hollow morphology, exhibit dramatically increased photocatalytic activity over their individual components, Ir, Ni, Co and Sn respectively. The project is expected to expand the application of photocatalysis and generate knowledge that can be used to design efficient photocatalysts from non-plasmonic metals. Intended benefits are the generation of new knowledge and capabilities in synthetic catalysis and applications in fields such as the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy.