Congratulations to Lili Du for her paper just accepted by Chemical Science!
This article reported on the combination of plasmonic Au NPs and semiconductors for plasmon-promoted electrocatalytic water splitting. By using SERS, we find a strong spontaneous interfacial charge transfer between Au and NiCo LDH. Through selective blocking of the metal surface with a thiol molecular monolayer, it is found that the plasmon-promoted OER occurs on LDH semiconductor but HER are mainly located on Au NP surface. This work demonstrates the critical role of interfacial charge transfer in hot electron-driven water splitting and paves the way for rational design of high-performance plasmonic electrocatalysts.
