Volume 54, Issue 8 pp. 2425-2430
Communication

Efficient Coupling of Solar Energy to Catalytic Hydrogenation by Using Well-Designed Palladium Nanostructures

Dr. Ran Long

Dr. Ran Long

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Zhoulv Rao

Zhoulv Rao

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Keke Mao

Keke Mao

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

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Yu Li

Yu Li

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

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Chao Zhang

Chao Zhang

Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (P. R. China)

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Qiliang Liu

Qiliang Liu

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

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Dr. Chengming Wang

Dr. Chengming Wang

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

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Prof. Zhi-Yuan Li

Prof. Zhi-Yuan Li

Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (P. R. China)

College of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641 (P. R. China)

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Prof. Xiaojun Wu

Prof. Xiaojun Wu

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

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Prof. Yujie Xiong

Corresponding Author

Prof. Yujie Xiong

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (P. R. China) http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/∼yjxiong/Search for more papers by this author
First published: 19 October 2014
Citations: 96

This work was financially supported by the NSFC (No. 21101145, 91123010), Recruitment Program of Global Experts, CAS Hundred Talent Program, Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (No. 20123402110050), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. WK2060190025, WK2060190037).

Graphical Abstract

Taking shape: A Ru3+-mediated synthesis has been developed for unique Pd concave nanostructures which can directly harvest UV-to-visible light for styrene hydrogenation (see figure). The catalytic efficiency under full-spectrum irradiation at room temperature turns out to be comparable to that of the thermally (70 °C) driven reaction. The yields are higher than those obtained using Pd nanocrystals such as nanocubes and octahedrons.

Abstract

A Ru3+-mediated synthesis for the unique Pd concave nanostructures, which can directly harvest UV-to-visible light for styrene hydrogenation, is described. The catalytic efficiency under 100 mW cm−2 full-spectrum irradiation at room temperature turns out to be comparable to that of thermally (70 °C) driven reactions. The yields obtained with other Pd nanocrystals, such as nanocubes and octahedrons, are lower. The nanostructures reported here have sufficient plasmonic cross-sections for light harvesting in a broad spectral range owing to the reduced shape symmetry, which increases the solution temperature for the reaction by the photothermal effect. They possess a large quantity of atoms at corners and edges where local heat is more efficiently generated, thus providing active sites for the reaction. Taken together, these factors drastically enhance the hydrogenation reaction by light illumination.

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