Cobalt Oxide Nanoclusters on Rutile Titania as Bifunctional Units for Water Oxidation Catalysis and Visible Light Absorption: Understanding the Structure-Activity Relationship.

The structure of cobalt oxide (CoO) nanoparticles dispersed on rutile TiO (R-TiO) was characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV-vis-NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The CoO nanoparticles were loaded onto R-TiO by an impregnation method from an aqueous solution containing Co(NO)·6HO followed by heating in air. Modification of the R-TiO with 2.

Modification of Wide-Band-Gap Oxide Semiconductors with Cobalt Hydroxide Nanoclusters for Visible-Light Water Oxidation.

Cobalt-based compounds, such as cobalt(II) hydroxide, are known to be good catalysts for water oxidation. Herein, we report that such cobalt species can also activate wide-band-gap semiconductors towards visible-light water oxidation. Rutile TiO2 powder, a well-known wide-band-gap semiconductor, was capable of harvesting visible light with wavelengths of up to 850 nm, and thus catalyzed water oxidation to produce molecular oxygen, when decorated with cobalt(II) hydroxide nanoclusters.