Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Using Dual Plasmonic Antennas

Plasmon-mediated photocatalytic water splitting has attracted extensive attention due to its bright future in using visible light, but the enhancement mechanism is still unclear, and the efficiency remains low. Herein, a dual-plasmonic-antenna strategy that allows efficient generation of energetic hot electrons and strong electromagnetic fields simultaneously has been developed to boost the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Au@CdS core–shell nanoparticles are assembled on Ag@SiO2 shell-isolated nanoparticles, forming dual-plasmonic-antenna nanocomposites. Transient absorption spectroscopic experiments and electromagnetic field simulations demonstrate that both hot-electron transfer and plasmon-induced resonance energy transfer exist in this system. The Au@CdS antenna can generate energetic hot electrons to trigger the HER, while the Ag@SiO2 antenna produces strong electromagnetic fields to promote the generation and separation of hot carriers, thus significantly improving the HER performance under visible light irradiation. Such a dual-plasmonic-antenna concept overcomes the intrinsic limitation of traditional plasmonic photocatalytic materials and offers unique opportunities to develop efficient photocatalysts.