The adsorption of the H2S molecule on the undoped and N-doped TiO2 anatase supported Au nanoparticles were studied using density functional theory calculations. The adsorption of H2S on both Au and TiO2 sides of the nanoparticle was examined. On the TiO2 side, the fivefold coordinated titanium site was found to be the most favorable binding site, giving rise to the strong interaction of H2S wit...

Diarylamines are an important class of widely utilized chemicals, and development of diverse procedures for their synthesis is of great importance. Herein, we have successfully developed novel versatile catalytic procedures for the synthesis of diarylamines through acceptorless dehydrogenative aromatization. In the presence of a gold-palladium alloy nanoparticle catalyst (Au-Pd/TiO2), various s...

The specific role played by small gold nanoparticles supported on the rutile TiO2( 110) surface in the processes of adsorption and dissociation of H2 is discussed. It is demonstrated that the molecular and dissociative adsorption of H2 on Au(n) clusters containing n = 1, 2, 8 and 20 atoms depends on cluster size, geometry structure, cluster flexibility and the interaction with the support mater...

The interaction strength of Au nanoparticles with pristine and nitrogen doped TiO2 nanowire surfaces was analysed using density functional theory and their significance in enhancing the solar driven photoelectrocatalytic properties was elucidated. In this article, we prepared 4-dimethylaminopyridine capped Au nanoparticle decorated TiO2 nanowire systems. The density functional theory calculatio...

The activity of Au nanoparticle-loaded P25 TiO2 (Au/P25) plasmonic photocatalysts, evaluated by the oxidative decomposition of formic acid in water under visible light irradiation, was enhanced up to 3 times by simply mixing Au/P25 with photocatalytically inactive h-BN nanosheets as a result of electron transfer from photoexcited Au/TiO2 to the h-BN nanosheets and retardation of the charge reco...

It is demonstrated that the support effects play a crucial role in the gold nanocatalysis. Two types of support are considered—the “inert” support of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with the N and B vacancy defects and the “active” support of rutile TiO2(110). It is demonstrated that Au and Au2 can be trapped effectively by the vacancy defects in h-BN. In that case, the strong adsorption on the ...

The development of efficient photocatalytic routines for producing hydrogen is of great importance as society moves away from energy sources derived from fossil fuels. Recent studies have identified that the addition of metal nanoparticles to TiO2 greatly enhances the photocatalytic performance of these materials towards the reforming of alcohols for hydrogen production. The core-shell structur...

In this communication, a new photoelectrochemical aptasensor with Au nanoparticle functionalized self-doped TiO2 nanotube arrays (Au/SD-TiO2 NTs) as the core sensing unit and aptamers as the recognition unit was set up to accomplish the sensitive and selective detection of kanamycin with the lowest detection limit of 0.1 nM.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in highly-efficient absorbers of visible light for the conversion of solar energy into electrochemical energy. This study presents a TiO2-Au bilayer that consists of a rough Au film under a TiO2 film, which aims to enhance the photocurrent of TiO2 over the whole visible region and may be the first attempt to use rough Au films to sensitize TiO2...

This project is an extension of TEM work conducted on a previous AINSE funded project AINGRA08066, and aims to use the TEM, STEM/HAADF, EDS and plasmon imaging facilities at ANSTO to structurally characterize novel supported silver nanoparticle catalysts for ozone abatement, and supported gold catalysts for low temperature CO oxidation. The catalysts, fabricated at the University of Auckland, c...