The Au/Ag alloy nanoshuttle-TiO2 nanostructure with enhanced H2 production under visible light and inactivation analysis

Plasmonic noble metal has been applied in photocatalytic materials, and TiO2 with plasmonic noble metal has been studied for a long time. In this work, we have fabricated incomplete covered Au/Ag alloy nanoshuttle-TiO2 nanomaterials with 268.7 μmol g−1 h−1 H2-evolution in a simple solution method. The considerable photocatalytic performance is mainly due to the enhanced surface plasmon resonance effect of Au/Ag alloy nanoshuttles. It has been found that TiO2 clusters attached to the Au/Ag nanoshuttles surface migrate under electrons irradiation and cover the exposed Au/Ag NS surface to achieve thermodynamic stability, which results in instability of photocatalytic performance. The mechanism has been discussed in detail.