In this paper, we report the efficient production of formic acid through simultaneous photoreduction of bicarbonate and oxidation of glycerol in the presence of gold-TiO₂ composite. Under solar light (solar simulator, AM 1.5 filter) the productivity of formate was 0.9 mmol/g cat-hr using TiO₂ alone. The yield of formate was remarkably enhanced (7 mmol/g cat-hr) by combining plasmonic gold nanoparticles with TiO₂. It was found that in the photocatalytic reaction, glycerol not only serves as an efficient hole sinks but also the oxidation of glycerol may produce additional formic acid further enhancing the overall productivity. When illuminated with 365 nm photon with energy sufficient to excite valence band to conduction band electronic transitions in the TiO₂, the productivity of TiO₂ alone dramatically improves in comparison to solar light. However, no effect of gold nanoparticles was observed under 365 nm irradiation. The improvement in product yield under solar light is attributed to the synergistic effect of strong plasmonic properties of gold nanoparticles in the visible wavelength range and superior hole scavenging activities of glycerol from gold-TiO₂ composite surface.

在本文中，我们报告了在存在金-TiO ₂复合材料的情况下，通过碳酸氢盐的同时光还原和甘油的氧化，可以有效地生产甲酸。在太阳光下（太阳能模拟器，AM 1.5滤光片），仅使用TiO ₂，甲酸的生产率为0.9 mmol / g cat-hr 。通过将等离激元金纳米粒子与TiO ₂结合，可显着提高甲酸的收率（7 mmol / g cat-hr）。发现在光催化反应中，甘油不仅充当有效的空穴沉，而且甘油的氧化可以产生额外的甲酸，从而进一步提高了总生产率。当被365 nm光子照射时，其能量足以激发TiO中的价带到导带的电子跃迁_{如图2所示}，与太阳光相比，单独的TiO ₂的生产率显着提高。然而，在365nm照射下未观察到金纳米颗粒的作用。太阳光下产品收率的提高归因于金纳米颗粒在可见光波长范围内的强等离子性能和甘油从金-TiO ₂复合材料表面清除空穴的优异协同作用。