Light induced coarsening of metal nanoparticles

Liuxian Zhang; Qianlang Liu; Peter A. Crozier

doi:10.1039/c8ta11341f

Light induced coarsening of metal nanoparticles

Liuxian Zhang, Qianlang Liu, Peter A. Crozier

Engineering, Ira A. Fulton Schools of (IAFSE)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a novel metal particle coarsening mechanism that is controlled by exposure of the substrate to light. Pt nanoparticles on TiO₂ are observed to undergo enhanced coarsening during light illumination under conditions associated with photocatalytic water splitting. The average Pt particle size changed from 1.7 to 2.1 nm over 12 hours of photoreaction conditions whereas control experiments in the dark showed no change in Pt particle size. The coarsening is thermodynamically driven by the Gibbs-Thompson effect but is kinetically controlled by photon illumination conditions. These effects accelerate electron transport between particles on the substrate of differing sizes and dramatically increase the rate of Ostwald ripening. This enhanced coarsening mechanism will operate in other metal particle systems supported on semiconductors which harvest light and inject electrons into the conduction band. The kinetic rate of ripening is related to the degree to which the substrate conductivity and photovoltage is enhance during light illumination.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	11756-11763
Number of pages	8
Journal	Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Volume	7
Issue number	19
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ta11341f
State	Published - 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
General Materials Science

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@article{f50525201540485c9fc18461f5a997e9,

title = "Light induced coarsening of metal nanoparticles",

abstract = "We report a novel metal particle coarsening mechanism that is controlled by exposure of the substrate to light. Pt nanoparticles on TiO2 are observed to undergo enhanced coarsening during light illumination under conditions associated with photocatalytic water splitting. The average Pt particle size changed from 1.7 to 2.1 nm over 12 hours of photoreaction conditions whereas control experiments in the dark showed no change in Pt particle size. The coarsening is thermodynamically driven by the Gibbs-Thompson effect but is kinetically controlled by photon illumination conditions. These effects accelerate electron transport between particles on the substrate of differing sizes and dramatically increase the rate of Ostwald ripening. This enhanced coarsening mechanism will operate in other metal particle systems supported on semiconductors which harvest light and inject electrons into the conduction band. The kinetic rate of ripening is related to the degree to which the substrate conductivity and photovoltage is enhance during light illumination.",

author = "Liuxian Zhang and Qianlang Liu and Crozier, {Peter A.}",

note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to our colleagues at ASU, Profs Candace Chan and Dan Buttry for helpful discussion and also to Prof. Karl Sieradzki for assistance with the electrochemical interpretations of the observations. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under Award DE-SC0004954. The use of TEM at John M. Cowley Center for High Resolution Microscopy at Arizona State University and the help of Dr Gwyneth W. Gordon et al. from School of Earth and Space Exploration for ICP-MS test at ASU is also gratefully appreciated. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry.",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.1039/c8ta11341f",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "7",

pages = "11756--11763",

journal = "Journal of Materials Chemistry A",

issn = "2050-7488",

publisher = "Royal Society of Chemistry",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Light induced coarsening of metal nanoparticles

AU - Zhang, Liuxian

AU - Liu, Qianlang

AU - Crozier, Peter A.

N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to our colleagues at ASU, Profs Candace Chan and Dan Buttry for helpful discussion and also to Prof. Karl Sieradzki for assistance with the electrochemical interpretations of the observations. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under Award DE-SC0004954. The use of TEM at John M. Cowley Center for High Resolution Microscopy at Arizona State University and the help of Dr Gwyneth W. Gordon et al. from School of Earth and Space Exploration for ICP-MS test at ASU is also gratefully appreciated. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - We report a novel metal particle coarsening mechanism that is controlled by exposure of the substrate to light. Pt nanoparticles on TiO2 are observed to undergo enhanced coarsening during light illumination under conditions associated with photocatalytic water splitting. The average Pt particle size changed from 1.7 to 2.1 nm over 12 hours of photoreaction conditions whereas control experiments in the dark showed no change in Pt particle size. The coarsening is thermodynamically driven by the Gibbs-Thompson effect but is kinetically controlled by photon illumination conditions. These effects accelerate electron transport between particles on the substrate of differing sizes and dramatically increase the rate of Ostwald ripening. This enhanced coarsening mechanism will operate in other metal particle systems supported on semiconductors which harvest light and inject electrons into the conduction band. The kinetic rate of ripening is related to the degree to which the substrate conductivity and photovoltage is enhance during light illumination.

AB - We report a novel metal particle coarsening mechanism that is controlled by exposure of the substrate to light. Pt nanoparticles on TiO2 are observed to undergo enhanced coarsening during light illumination under conditions associated with photocatalytic water splitting. The average Pt particle size changed from 1.7 to 2.1 nm over 12 hours of photoreaction conditions whereas control experiments in the dark showed no change in Pt particle size. The coarsening is thermodynamically driven by the Gibbs-Thompson effect but is kinetically controlled by photon illumination conditions. These effects accelerate electron transport between particles on the substrate of differing sizes and dramatically increase the rate of Ostwald ripening. This enhanced coarsening mechanism will operate in other metal particle systems supported on semiconductors which harvest light and inject electrons into the conduction band. The kinetic rate of ripening is related to the degree to which the substrate conductivity and photovoltage is enhance during light illumination.

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DO - 10.1039/c8ta11341f

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JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry A

JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry A

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Light induced coarsening of metal nanoparticles

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