Uniform Gold-Nanoparticle-Decorated {001}-Faceted Anatase TiO2 Nanosheets for Enhanced Solar-Light Photocatalytic Reactions.

The {001}-faceted anatase TiO2 micro-/nanocrystals have been widely investigated for enhancing the photocatalysis and photoelectrochemical performance of TiO2 nanostructures, but their practical applications still require improved energy conversion efficiency under solar-light and enhanced cycling stability. In this work, we demonstrate the controlled growth of ultrathin {001}-faceted anatase TiO2 nanosheets on flexible carbon cloth for enhancing the cycling stability, and the solar-light photocatalytic performance of the synthesized TiO2 nanosheets can be significantly improved by decorating with vapor-phase-deposited uniformly distributed plasmonic gold nanoparticles. The fabricated Au-TiO2 hybrid system shows an 8-fold solar-light photocatalysis enhancement factor in photodegrading Rhodamine B, a high photocurrent density of 300 μA cm-2 under the illumination of AM 1.5G, and 100% recyclability under a consecutive long-term cycling measurement. Combined with electromagnetic simulations and systematic control experiments, it is believed that the tandem-type separation and transition of plasmon-induced hot electrons from Au nanoparticles to the {001} facet of anatase TiO2, and then to the neighboring {101} facet, is responsible for the enhanced solar-light photochemical performance of the hybrid system. The Au-TiO2 nanosheet system addresses well the problems of the limited solar-light response of anatase TiO2 and fast recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, representing a promising high-performance recyclable solar-light-responding system for practical photocatalytic reactions.