Tuning the size of photo-deposited metal nanoparticles via manipulating surface defect structures of TiO2 nanocrystals.

Here we report a new method for controlling photo-deposited metal nanoparticle size by manipulating surface defect structures of TiO2 nanocrystals. Our results demonstrate that the isolated oxygen vacancy could serve as an electron trapper while the oxygen vacancy cluster could act as an electron-hole recombination site in the photo-deposition process.