Uniform decoration of Pt nanoparticles on well-defined CdSe tetrapods and the effect of their Pt cluster size on photocatalytic H-2 generation

Abstract

Colloidal metal-semiconductor hybrid nanocrystals are of great interest due to their synergistic effect originating from multifunctionalities within a single nanocrystal for various applications. Among them, platinum-incorporated cadmium chalcogenide hybrid nanocrystals have been studied in the field of photocatalytic water splitting. Here, we present the direct decoration of Pt nanoparticles on CdSe tetrapod sidewalls synthesized by the continuous precursor injection (CPI) method. Pt-decorated CdSe tetrapods with different Pt nanoparticle sizes were synthesized and characterized by TEM, HR-TEM, XRD and HAADF-STEM. These tetrapods were employed as photocatalysts for the photocatalytic hydrogen generation reaction. The Pt-decorated CdSe tetrapods prepared with an extremely low amount of the Pt precursor showed the highest photocatalytic H-2 generation efficiency, which is believed to be attributed to the size effect of the Pt nanoparticles decorated on the CdSe tetrapod sidewalls.