UV‐Vis‐NIR‐Driven Plasmonic Photocatalysts with Dual‐Resonance Modes for Synergistically Enhancing H2 Generation

Plasmonic noble‐metal nanostructures have been introduced into semiconductor photocatalytsts to enhance the efficiency of solar‐to‐fuels conversion. However, most researches in this field focus on the utilization of a single resonance mode of plasmonic noble‐metal to sensitize the photo‐activity of semiconductor. Here, a novel UV‐vis‐NIR‐driven plasmonic photocatalyst is developed through selective assembly of the Pt and CdS nanostructures onto the Au nanorods (NRs) via a controllable multi‐step wet‐chemistry route. By combining finite element simulations with transient absorption (TA) results, it is demonstrated that the dual‐resonance modes of anisotropic Au NRs can induce a unique synergistic effect between the plasmonic resonance energy transfer (RET) and hot electron transfer (HET) processes within the Au‐Pt‐CdS NRs. As such, upon simulated sunlight irradiation, the photocatalytic activity of Au‐Pt‐CdS NRs for H2 generation is higher than that of the optimal Pt‐loaded CdS nanoparticles (NPs) by almost one order of magnitude.