A new perspective on metal particles enhanced MoS₂ photocatalysis in hydrogen evolution: Excited electric field by surface plasmon resonance

The hot electrons induced by surface plasmon resonance and transferred from metal particles to MoS₂ nanosheets have been reported as the mechanism for metal particles enhanced MoS₂ photocatalysis in hydrogen evolution, which provides new strategies to design novel non-platinum catalysts for hydrogen generation. In this study, we propose a new perspective to understand metal particles enhanced MoS₂ photocatalysis for hydrogen evolution by a combined electrodynamic and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The electrodynamic calculation reveals that the electric field could be excited around Au NPs during a surface plasmon resonance process, depending on the position and distance away from the NPs. Meanwhile, the DFT calculation shows the electric field would influence the charge and adsorption energy of the hydrogen atom on the MoS₂ surface, which will affect the hydrogen evolution catalysis process of a MoS₂-Au NPs system. Therefore, the excited electric field should be another reason for the enhanced photocatalysis of MoS₂, other than the "hot electrons" mechanism.