Plasmonic metal/MoxW1−xO3−y for visible-light-enhanced H2 production from ammonia borane

Abstract

A plasmonic Pd/Mo_xW_1−xO_3−y hybrid, having Pd NPs anchored on a plasmonic Mo_xW_1−xO_3−y support, is obtained by a solution-processed impregnation-reduction method. The synthesized Pd/Mo_xW_1−xO_3−y hybrid exhibits strong visible light absorption with a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak at around 700 nm. It is demonstrated that such a Pd/Mo_xW_1−xO_3−y hybrid displays dramatic plasmon-enhanced photocatalytic performance in the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (NH₃BH₃) solution under visible light irradiation, which mainly results from the synergetic effect between Pd NPs and emerging W⁵⁺ ions. More importantly, the performance of the Pd/Mo_xW_1−xO_3−y hybrid is almost 5.2 and 5 times higher than those of Mo_xW_1−xO_3−y-NaBH₄ (Mo_xW_1−xO_3−y obtained by NaBH₄ reduction) and our previously reported plasmonic Pd/MoO_3−x nanosheets. This study may open up the possibility of rationally designing plasmonic metal/semiconductor hybrids for highly efficient heterogeneous catalysis.