Au plasmonics in a WS2-Au-CuInS2 photocatalyst for significantly enhanced hydrogen generation

Promoting the activities of photocatalysts is still the critical challenge in H2 generation area. Here, a Au plasmon enhanced photocatalyst of WS2-Au-CuInS2 is developed by inserting Au nanoparticles between WS2 nanotubes and CuInS2 (CIS) nanoparticles. Due to the localized surface plasmonic resonance properties from Au nanoparticles, WS2-Au-CIS shows the best performance as compared to Au-CIS, CIS, WS2-CIS, CIS-Au, WS2-Au, and WS2-CIS-Au. The surface plasmonic resonance effects dramatically intensify the absorption of visible light and help to inject hot electrons into the semiconductors. Our findings open up an efficient method to optimize the type-II structures for photocatalytic water splitting.