Broadening the photoresponsive activity of anatase titanium dioxide particles via decoration with partial gold shells

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has gained increasing interest in materials research due to its outstanding properties and promising applications in a wide range of fields. From this perspective, we report the synthesis of custom-designed anatase TiO2 submicrometer particles coated with partial Au shells (ATiO(2)-AuSh1). The synthetic strategy used herein yields uniformly shaped monodisperse particles. Amorphous TiO2 core particles were synthesized using template-free oxidation and hydrolysis of titanium nitride (TiN); subsequent hydrothermal treatment generated anatase TiO2 (ATiO(2)) particles. Coating ATiO(2) particles with partial Au shells was accomplished using a simple seeded-growth method. Evaluation of the optical properties of these ATiO(2)-AuShl particles showed that these submicrometer composites exhibited an intense absorption peak for TiO2 in the UV region (similar to 326 nm) and a broad extinction band in the visible range (similar to 650 nm) arising from the incomplete Au shell. These ATiO(2)-AuShl composite particles provide a unique and effective means for broadening the optical response of TiO2-based nano- and micron-scale materials. The simplicity of our synthetic method should broaden the application of ATiO(2)-AuShl particles in various visible light-driven technologies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.