Promoted water splitting by efficient electron transfer between Au nanoparticles and hematite nanoplates: a theoretical and experimental study.

An ideal interface model combining a hematite nanoplate-based photoanode with Au nanoparticles (NPs) is proposed for elucidating the specific role of Au NPs in photoelectrochemical performances. The theoretical and experimental results reveal that Au/Fe2O3 nanoplates can lead to an enhanced localized electric field at the metal-semiconductor interface upon the formation of surface plasmon resonance and hot electrons, which can be injected into the conduction band of the semiconductor, thus improving the efficiency of the generation and separation of electron-hole pairs. As expected, the Au/Fe2O3 nanoplate-based photoelectrode possessed a higher carrier density and a photocurrent of 1.7 mA cm-2 and 3.8 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V and 1.5 V vs. RHE, which are nearly 5 times and 30 times larger than that of the Au/Fe2O3 nanocrystals and pristine Fe2O3 nanoplate-based photoelectrodes, respectively.