Nickel nanoparticles reveal secrets of charge collection

The findings could lead to improved systems that use light to make chemicals and fuels, such as by splitting water to make hydrogen or by combining carbon dioxide and water to make carbon-based fuels or chemicals.

The team from the University of Oregon found that as the size of the catalytic particles shrinks below 100nm the collection of excited positive charges (holes) becomes much more efficient than the collection of excited negative charges. This phenomenon prevents the excited positive and negative charges from recombining and is said to increase the system efficiency. The research is described in Nature Materials.

Nanocoatings improve water-splitting efficiency

"We found a design principle that points to making catalytic particles really small because of the physics at the interface, which allows one to increase efficiency," said Shannon Boettcher, a professor in Oregon's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and member of the university's Materials Science Institute.