NIR-Driven Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production by Silane- and Tertiary Amine-Bound Plasmonic Gold Nanoprisms.

Near-infrared (NIR) photon-driven H 2 production from water is regarded as one of the best routes for establishing a sustainable hydrogen-based energy economy. Here, we have developed a gold nanoprism-based photocatalytic assembly, rationally capped with an amine and a silane ligand pair, which exhibited an excellent H 2 production rate (146 μL mg -1 h -1 ) in neutral water while achieving an absolute incident photon-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 0.53%. An array of spectroscopic and microscopic experiments unravel that the amine ligand scavenges the hot hole while the silane aids the H 2 production via hydrolysis during the photocatalysis on the plasmon surface. This photocatalytic H 2 production reactivity can be retained for multiple cycles following the replenishment of amine and silane. Hence, this photocatalytic assembly can set up the template for a large-scale NIR-driven H 2 production unit.