Near-infrared-activated NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+/Au/CdS for H2 production: Via photoreforming of bio-ethanol: Plasmonic Au as light nanoantenna, energy relay, electron sink and co-catalyst

Article abstract of DOI:10.1039/c7ta02402a

A sandwich-structured NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Er³⁺/Au/CdS architecture, as an up-conversion-involved photocatalyst for H₂ production through photoreforming of renewable bio-ethanol, was constructed successfully. The Au nanoparticles embedded in the NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Er³⁺/CdS interface play a quadruplex role to improve the solar utilization efficiency. First, plasmonic Au works as a light nanoantenna to harvest more incident light. Second, plasmonic Au acts as an energy relay, in which Au SPR-induced F?rster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and plasmonic resonance energy transfer (PRET) synergistically facilitate the energy transfer from NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Er³⁺ to Au to CdS. Third, Au acts as an electron sink to promote electron-hole separation. Lastly, Au serves as a co-catalyst to activate H₂ evolution from bio-ethanol. The multifunctional Au makes NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Er³⁺/Au/CdS exhibit enhanced NIR-driven photocatalytic bio-ethanol reforming activity. Moreover, NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Er³⁺/Au/CdS shows superior photoactivity under simulated sunlight. This unique fabrication has implications for the rational design of highly efficient solar-energy-harvesting devices.

Full text of DOI:10.1039/c7ta02402a

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ISSN 2050-7488
PAPER
Kun Chang, Zhaorong Chang et al.
Bubble-template-assisted synthesis of hollow fullerene-like
MoS2 nanocages as a lithium ion battery anode material
rsc.li/materials-a

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ARTICLE
Near-Infrared-Activated NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+/Au/CdS for H2
Production via Photoreforming of Bio-Ethanol: Plasmonic Au as
Light Nanoantenna, Energy Relay, Electron Sink and Co-catalyst
Received 00th Janu ary 20xx,
Accepted 00th January 20xx
Wenhui Feng, a Lulu Zhang, a Yan Zhang, a Yu Yang, a Zhibin Fang, a Bo Wang, a Shiying Zhang, b and
Ping Liu*a
DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x
www.rsc.org/
A sandwich-structured NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+/Au/CdS architecture, as a up-conversion-involved photocatalyst for H2 production
through photoreforming of renewable bio-ethanol, is constructed successfully. The Au nanoprticles embedding in the
NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+/CdS interface play a quadruplex role toimprove the solar utilization efficiency. Firstly, plasmonic Au works
as a light nanoantenna to harvest more incident light. Secondly, plasmonic Au acts as an energy relay, that Au SPR-induced
Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and plasmonic resonance energy transfer (PRET) facilitate synergistically the
energy transfer from NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+ to Au to CdS. Thirdly, Au conducts as an electron sink for promoting electron-hole
separation. Lastly, Auserves for co-catalyst toactivate H2 evolution from bio-ethanol. The multifunctional Au makes NaYF4:
Yb3+, Er3+/Au/CdS exhibit enhanced NIR-driven photocatalytic bio-ethanol reforming activity. Also, NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+/Au/CdS
shows superior photoactivity under simulated sunlight. This unique fabrication has the implications for rationally designing
high-efficientsolar-energy-harvesting devices.
odds with the fairly diffuse solar light.42-45 Besides, the striking
difference of refractive index between semiconductor and UC host
material would cause strong interface reflection losses and further
Introduction
Harvesting the wide spectrum of solar light and achieving an higher
solar energy conversion efficiency (SECE) will remain one of the
most challenging missions and be highly desirable for
photocatalysts.1, 2 Up to now, most efforts are focused on UV and
visible light photocatalysis, while near-infrared (NIR) light which
accounts for about 44% of the solar energy is rarely utilized but
quite important.3-18 In order to extended the absorption to NIR
region, a nonlinear optical process, known as up-conversion (UC),
has been integrated into photocatalytic system.19-27 Upon near-
infrared excitation, certain material containing rare earth is able to
generate UC emission fluorescence ranging from UV to NIR. UC
material can serve as an medium for transferring NIR light energy to
the UV-activated or Vis-activated photocatalyst.
decrease seriously the incident flux and UC emission intensity,
discounting the UC-]vÀ}oÀꢀꢁ ‰Z}š}ꢂꢃšꢃoÇ•š[• ꢂꢃšꢃoÇš]ꢂ ꢀ((]ꢂ]ꢀvꢂÇX31, 46
Therefore the optimization of the UC-involved system is urgent and
challenging for lowering pumping threshold in power and
improving energy migration efficiency.
Recently, plasmonic nanostructure, which is characterized by their
strong interaction with resonant photons through an excitation of
surface plasmon resonance (SPR), shows significant promise for
conversion of solar to chemical energydue to the outstanding light-
trapping and electromagnetic-field-concentrating properties.
Particularly, two kinds of efficient non-radiative dipole-dipole
energy transfer, Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) and
plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET), may occur via the
enhanced local electromagnetic field on the premise that two
dipoles with partially overlapping spectra.47-51 Alternatively, if
plasmonic metal (M) is integrated into UC/S system properly, such
nanostructure would not only serve as a light nanoantenna that is
beneficial for harvesting the incident light, but also act as an energy
relay which extracts energy from UC component via FRET and
transfers the accumulated energy to semiconductor via PRET,
minimizing the dissipative energyat the UC/S interface. In this case,
As a kind of promising UC-involved phtocatalysts, UC host
material/semiconductor (UC/S) composites show obse rved NIR-
driven photocatalytic performance.19-21,
24, 25, 28-41
Unfortunately,
they usually suffer from small absorption cross-section, which
limited UC excitation and luminescent emission efficiency. And in
consequence high excitation power densities is needed, which is at
a. Research Institu te of Photoca talysis , State Key Labo ratory of Pho tocatalysis on
Energy and Environment, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, P. R. Ch ina. E-mail:
liuping@fzu.edu.cn .
the
issues facing current state-of-the-art UC-involved
photocatalysts would be addressed well.
b. Hunan Provincial Collabo rative Innova tion Center for Environment and Energ y
Photocatalysis, Changsha University, Changsha 410022, P. R. China.
Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI) available: [details of experimental
procedures , XPS spectra of Au 4f for NYF/Au/CdS composite, tables of gas and
Herein, we proposed a novel model structure UC/M/S in which
plasmonic nanostructure acts as an UC/S interface in nanoscale.
Considering the premise, the SPR absorbance of M should overlap
with UC emission spectra of UC component and absorbance spectra
Liquid Produ ct yields for photo catalytic bio-ethanol reform ing on vario us samples].
See DOI: 10 .1039/x0xx00000x
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of semiconductor simultaneously. Yb3+, Er3+ co-doped NaYF4 solution (0.049 mM) was dissolved into 20 mL DI water. For
(abbreviated as NYF), Au nanoparticles (NPs), and CdS is selected as displacing Cl- ions with hydroxyl on the Au precursor, the pH value
the corresponding UC, M and S component, respectively. The of the resulting solution was adjusted to about 9.0 with vigorous
unique NYF/Au/CdS nanospheres (NSs) are constructed by a three- stirring using a solution of 1.0 M NaOH at room temperature, and
step wet-chemical route successfully. The as -synthesized then 400 mg NYF NSs were added into this above solution. The
NYF/Au/CdS hybrid is applied to producing H2 by bio-ethanol obtained suspension was dried in a 60 ºC water bath with stirring,
photoreforming. Where bio-ethanol is a mixture of ethanol and permitting the Au3+ completely precipitating on the surface of NYF
water (about 12wt% ethanol) with non-toxicity and storage and support. Afterwards, the dried precipitates were immersed into 50
handling safety. It can be produced renewably by fermentation of mL 1.0 M NaBH4 aqueous solution to reduce the Au3+ to Au0 for 2 hr,
biomass sources, such as woody materials, plant crops, agricultural and washed with deionized water to remove Cl- and other excess
52-54
residues, organic fraction of municipal solid waste, etc.
As ions. Lastly, after the precipitates dried at 60 °C in vacuum
beneficial by the multifunctional Au NPs, who plays the roles of overnight, an NYF/Au sample containing about 1 wt.% Au was
light nanoantenna, energy relay, electron sink and co-catalyst obtained.
simultaneously, this unique NYF/Au/CdS composite not only shows Synthesis of NYF/CdS
improved photocatalytic performance under low-density NIR light
0.2 mmol Cd(NO3)2{ðI2O was mixed with an aqueous solution of L-
irradiation, but also exhibits the soaring H2 production rate from
cysteine (10 mL, 0.04 M) and stirred for 30 min. Then, 400 mg NYF
bio-ethanol photoreforming by using the fairly diffuse simulated
power was dispersed into the resulting mixture and stirred for 1 hr.
sunlight as the only energy source, compared with the bare NYF,
After that, 70 mL absolute ethyl alcohol was added into the
NYF/Au and NYF/CdS. Through the implementation of this concept,
obtained suspension, and continue to stir for a further 5 min. The
this model structure provides a new strategy booming efficient and
resulting suspension subsequently was transferred into a 100 mL
practical NIR-activated photocatalysts.
Teflon-lined autoclave and heated at 160 °C for 12 hr. After cooling
to room temperature, the as-prepared NYF/CdS, containing about
6.7 wt% CdS, were collected by centrifugation, washing with DI
Experimental
water and absolute ethanol several times and drying at 60 °C in
Materials
vacuum.
Synthesis of NYF/Au/CdS
Yttrium nitrate (Y(NO3)3, 99.99%), ytterbium nitrate (Yb(NO3)3,
99.99%) and erbium nitrate (Er(NO3)3, 99.99%) were purchased
from Tianjin Fengyue Chemical Corp. (Tianjin, China).
Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium salt (EDTA, AR), sodium
fluoride (NaF, AR), chloroauric acid tetrahydrate (AuCl 3·HCl·H2O, AR),
sodium borohydride (NaBH4, AR), sodium hydroxide (NaOH, AR), L-
cysteine (Cys, BR), ethanal absolute (CH3CH2OH, AR), sodium sulfate
(Na2SO4, AR) and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF, AR) were
purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd. (Shanghai,
China). Cadmium nitrate tetrahydrate (Cd(NO3)2{ðI2O) was
obtained from Aladdin Industrial Corp. (Shanghai, China). All
chemicals were used directlywithout further purification. Deionized
(DI) water used in the synthesis came from local sources.
0.2 mmol Cd(NO3)2 was mixed with 10 mL aqueous solution of L-
cysteine (0.04 M) and stirred for 30 min. Then, 400 mg NYF/Au
power was dispersed into the resulting mixture and stirred for 1 hr.
After that, 70 mL absolute ethyl alcohol was added into the
obtained suspension, and continue to stir for a further 5 min. The
resulting suspension subsequently was transferred into a 100 mL
Teflon-lined autoclave and heated at 160 °C for 12 hr. After cooling
to room temperature, the as-prepared NYF/Au/CdS, containing
about 1 wt.% Au and 6.7 wt.% CdS, were collected by centrifugation,
washing with DI water and absolute ethanol several times and
dryingat 60 °Cin vacuum.
Characterization
Synthesis of NYF NSs
The crystal structures of the as-prepared samples was identified by
X-ray diffraction using X-raypowder diffraction (XRD) patterns were
carried out on a Bruker D8 ADVANCE X-ray diffractometer, with Cu
Ka radiation (l = 0.15418 nm), which operated at 40 kV and 40 mA.
ÇZꢀ •ꢂꢃv Œꢃšꢀ Áꢃ• ìXñ ~î}{•-1). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
images were obtained using a Nova NanoSEM 230 field-emission
scanning electron microscope. Transmission electron microscopy
(TEM), high-resolution transmission electron micrographs (HRTEM)
and high-angle annular dark field-scanning transmission electron
The NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+ NSs were synthesized via a modified one-step
solvothermal method. Typically, 1.41 mmol Y(NO3)3, 0.16 mmol
Yb(NO3)3 and 0.032 mmol Er(NO3)3 were dissolved into 20 mL DI
water, forming solution A. 1.6 mmol EDTA was added into 20 mL DI
water, and 14.4 mmol NaF was added into 20 mL DI water under
vigorous stirring, resulting solution B and C, respectively. After the
solution A, B and C were heated to 60 °C, solution B and C was
added dropwise into solution A with stirring, respectively. The
obtained mixture subsequently was poured into the flask and
stirred at 60 °C for a further 1 hr. Then, the resulting suspension
was transferred into a 100 mL Teflon-lined autoclave and heated at
180 °C for 3 hr. After cooling to room temperature, the as-prepared
NSs were obtained by centrifugation, washing with DI water and
absolute ethanol several times and drying at 60 °C in vacuum.
Synthesis of NYF/Au
microscope (HAADF-STEM) images were collected with
a
TecnaiG2F20 S-TWIN with an accelerating voltage of 200 kV. UV-vis-
NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) was measured bya Carry
500 UV-vis spectrophotometer, in which BaSO4 was served as the
background. Upconversion emission spectra were recorded byusing
a FSP920 fluorescence spectrophotometer (Edinburgh Instruments
Ltd., UK) under 980 nm excitation using an optical parametric
oscillator (OPO) pulsed laser focused on the sample using a lens to
obtain a spot with Gaussian intensity distribution (area of 1 mm2).
The Au NPs were deposited onto the surfaces of NYF NSs via a
chemical impregnation-Œꢀꢁµꢂš]}v ‰Œ}ꢂꢀ••X .Œ]ꢀ(oÇU ðíó …[ I!µ/o4
2 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3
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Fig. 5. (A) the UV-vis-NIR absorption spectra of NYF, NYF/Au, reabsorption or FRET mode and scattering mechanism, respectively.
NYF/CdS and NYF/Au/CdS (solid line) and the UC luminescence For the NYF/Au/CdS hybrid, the intensities of the green and red
spectrum of NYF upon 980nm NIR excitation (dash line). (B) UC emission further diminish compared to those of NYF/Au. It indicates
emission spectra of NYF, NYF/Au, NYF/CdS and NYF/Au/CdS (inset: that the plasmonic Au and CdS could cooperatively enhance the
the magnified UCemission spectra of NYF/Au and NYF/Au/CdS).
utilization of UCemission. Which mayendue NYF/Au/CdS with good
NIR-driven photocatalytic performance.
Bio-ethanol photoreforming performance
The optical properties of as-prepared samples are investigated by
UV-vis-NIR absorption spectra. As shown in Fig. 5A, bare NYF
exhibits onlya weak absorption band centered at ~975 nm, which is
2
attributed to the F7/2W2F5/2 transition of Yb3+ in the NaYF4 host.22
With the modification of Au on NYF, one strong broad absorption
band located between 490 and 630 nm emerges, which is assigned
to the SPR characteristic absorption of Au NPs. Meanwhile, NYF/Au
presents an increase in absorption across the entire spectral range
compared with the bare NYF, suggesting the plasmonic Au indeed
enhances light absorption.57 The UV-vis-NIR absorption profile of
NYF/CdS presents an obvious bandgap absorption of CdS. The band
gap is determined to be ~2.3eV (537 nm), using a tangent line to
the absorption edge. When CdS NPs grown on the NYF/Au substrate,
the Au SPR characteristic absorption and the enhanced bandgap
absorption of CdS appear simultaneously. Obviously, the
characteristic bandgap absorption band of CdS in NYF/Au/CdS has a
slight red-shift compared with one in NYF/CdS, most likely because
of the strong electromagnetic coupling between Au and CdS.58-60
This also further manifests the intimate contact between CdS and
Au NPs. Moreover, these UV-vis-NIR spectra intuitively display that
there indeed is some overlap between the Au SPR characteristic
absorption and bandgap absorption of CdS. To check weather the
UC emission spectra of NYF match with both the bandgap
absorption of CdS and Au SPR characteristic absorption, which is
crucial for NYF/Au/CdS to effectively utilize UC luminescence, the
UC emission spectra is also depicted in Fig. 5 (dashed line). Under a
980 nm laser excitation, NYF gives typical green emission ranging
from 515 to 565 nm and red emission ranging from 640 to 675 nm
Fig. 6. The photocatalytic bio-ethanol reforming H2 evolution in the
presence of various samples under NIR (A), simulated sunlight (B)
and simulated sunlight without NIR component irradiation (C).
To verify our hypothesis, the photocatalytic bio-ethanol reforming
H2 evolution properties of all samples are investigated under the
non-coherent NIR light part of simulated sunlight (AM 1.5G). The
results are presented in Fig. 6A and Table S1 and S2. As shown in Fig.
6A, the pure bio-ethanol solution with absent of any samples
ꢁ}ꢀ•v[š ‰Œ}ꢁµꢂꢀ ꢁꢀšꢀꢂšꢃꢄoꢀ I2 under NIRirradiation. It excludes the
possibility of pure light effects on bio-ethanol photoreforming H2
production at room temperature. Yet, no H2 is detected in the
presence of NYF or NYF/CdS exposed to the NIR light, indicating
that the energetic electrons in NYF cannot be directly utilized in the
current photocatalytic system and CdS cannot efficiently harvest
the very low-density UC emission fluorescence to generate enough
free carriers for bio-ethanol photoreforming H2 production.
However, an observable H2 production is observed in the presence
of NYF/Au, confirming that the energy migrating from the NYF to Au
could induce the Au SPR and enable the plasmonic Au to trigger
photocatalytic bio-ethanol reforming H2 production via SPR-induced
hot-electron effect or SPR-induced heat effect activating
photocatalytic process. As expected, NYF/Au/CdS shows the highest
H2 production rate (0.59 …mol{g-1{h-1), compared with the NYF,
NYF/Au or NYF/CdS. The corresponding apparent quantum
efficiency is about 0.00089% under NIR irradiation („>700 nm). This
further verified the fact that NYF/Au/CdS can high-efficiently utilize
the energy migrating from the NYF due to the synergy between
in visible light region, those are originated from the (2H11/2
,
4S3/2•W4I15/2 and F9/2W4I15/2 transitions of Er3+ ions doped in NaYF4
host, respectively.55 It is obvious that both the SPR characteristic
absorption of Au and bandgap absorption of CdS overlap with the
UC green emission, but the extent of overlap for the former is
greater than the latter. Itimplies that plasmonic Au can utilize more
UC green luminescence than CdS. Meanwhile, neither of them
overlaps with the UC red emission.
4
For further revealing the utilization of UC luminescence in all
composites, UC emission spectra under 980 nm excitation of as-
prepared samples are exhibited in Fig. 5B. After being covered by
CdS, the intensity of green emission decreases slightly, while the
red emission changes little. The green emission is reduced mainly
via FRET process or radiation-reabsorption processes in NYF/CdS.
The unchanged red emission arises from that the energyof red light
is lower than the one corresponding bandgap of CdS. It also
indicates that šZꢀ šZ]v /ꢁ{oꢃÇꢀŒ ꢂ}µoꢁv[š ꢃššꢀvµꢃšꢀ šZꢀ ]vꢂ]ꢁꢀvš bLw
light intensity arriving at the NYF surfaces. The modification of Au
NPs results in a remarkable reduction in the intensities of the green
emission and red emission. And the decrement of green emission is
higher than that of red emission. This phenomenon suggests that
the quenching of green emission and red emission in NYF/Au is due
to the energy migration from the NYF to plasmonic Au by radiation-
plasmonic Au and CdS, resulting
a
significant NIR-driven
photocatalytic performance. Besides, for comparison, the NIR
photoactivity of the mechanical mixing sample of NYF and Au/CdS
(donated as NYF-Au/CdS-M), with the mass ratio of Au/CdS is 7.7%,
is also tested. Au/CdS is prepared by the modified previ ous
method.61 The detailed experimental processes are presented in
Supporting Information. As a result, photocatalytic H2 production
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8
9
Q. Wang, T. Hisatomi, Q. Jia, H. Tokudome, M. Zhong, C. Wang,
Z. Pan, T. Takata, M. Nakabayashi, N. Shibata, Y. Li, I. D. Sharp, A.
Kudo, T. Yamada and K. Domen, Nat. Mater., 2016, 15, 611-615.
T. Ohno, L. Bai, T. Hisatomi, K. Maeda and K. Domen, J. Am.
Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 8254-8259.
This could effectivelysuppress the recombination of carriers in CdS.
Moreover, the plasmonic Au may also act as a co-catalyst and
provide active sites for bio-ethanol photoreforming H2 evolution.
Eventually, the separated electrons and holes can react with the
adsorbed CH3CH2OH on the surface of Au and CdS, mainly forming
H2 and CH3CH2O. The interface between metallic Au and CdS may
10 F. Lei, L. Zhang, Y. Sun, L. Liang, K. Liu, J. Xu, Q. Zhang, B. Pan, Y.
Luo and Y. Xie, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015, 54, 9266-9270.
11 C. Pan, T. Takata, M. Nakabayashi, T. Matsumoto, N. Shibata, Y.
Ikuhara and K. Domen, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015, 54, 2955-
2959.
play
a
key role in bio-ethanol photoreforming reaction
mechanism.66 More experiments for revealing the mechanism of
photocatalytic bio-ethanol reforming producing H2 and
corresponding carbonyl compounds over NYF/Au/CdS photocatalyst 12 Y. Zheng, L. Lin, B. Wang and X. Wang, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.,
2015, 54, 12868-12884.
are ongoing.
13 J. L. White, M. F. Baruch, J. E. Pander Iii, Y. Hu,I. C. Fortmeyer, J.
E. Park, T. Zhang, K. Liao, J. Gu, Y. Yan, T. W. Shaw, E. Abelevand
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14 A. Sinhamahapatra, J.-P. Jeon and J.-S. Yu, Energy Environ. Sci.,
2015, 8, 3539-3544.
Conclusions
In summary, on the one hand, plasmonic Au NPs sandwiched
between NYF and CdS play as a light concentrator and an
energy relay for overcoming the small absorption cross-section
15 J. Tian, Y. Leng, Z. Zhao, Y. Xia, Y. Sang, P. Hao, J. Zhan, M. Li and
H. Liu, Nano Energy, 2015, 11, 419-427.
limit and interfacial energy loss issue facing the current state- 16 J. Hou, H. Cheng, C. Yang, O. Takeda and H. Zhu, Nano Energy,
2015, 18, 143-153.
of-the-art UC-involved photocatalysts. On the other hand, Au
NPs also play the roles of electron sink and co-catalyst to
promoting carrier separation and lowering catalytic reaction
barrier for the related chemical transformation. On account of
the multiple mediator effects of plasmonic Au, the
NYF/Au@CdS composite exhibits obviously enhanced bio-
ethanol photoreforming activity under low-density NIR light
and the simulated solar light irradiation. The established
UC/M/S photocatalytic system offers a new strategy for
developing effective and robust NIR-driven UC-involved
photocatalysis systems, that will greatly improve solar-energy
utilization efficiency.
17 X. Meng, T. Wang, L. Liu, S. Ouyang, P. Li, H. Hu, T. Kako, H. Iwai,
A. Tanaka and J. Ye, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2014, 53, 11478-
11482.
18 J. Ren, S. Ouyang, H. Xu, X. Meng, T. Wang, D. Wang and J. Ye,
Adv. Energy Mater., 2017, 7, 1601657.
19 W. Yang, X. Li, D. Chi, H. Zhang and X. Liu, Nanotechnology, 2014,
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20 Z. Li, C. Li, Y. Mei, L. Wang, G. Du and Y. Xiong, Nanoscale, 2013,
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21 W. Wang, M. Ding, C. Lu, Y. Ni and Z. Xu, Appl. Catal. B: Environ.,
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22 Z. Xu, M. Quintanilla, F. Vetrone, A. O. Govorov, M. Chaker and
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23 H.-i. Kim, O. S. Kwon, S. Kim, W. Choi and J.-H. Kim, Energy
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Acknowledgements
24 M. Tou, Y. Mei, S. Bai, Z. Luo, Y. Zhang and Z. Li, Nanoscale, 2016,
8, 553-562.
The authors acknowledge the support from National Natural
Science Foundation of China (21273035, 21173046 and 21473031),
the funding under National Key Technologies R & D Program of
China (2014BAC13B03), National Basic Research Program of China
(973 Program: 2013CB632405), and Science & Technology Plan
Project of Fujian Province (2014Y2003) .
25 W. Wang, Y. Li, Z. Kang, F. Wang and J. C. Yu, Appl. Catal. B:
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Table of contents entry
A sandwich-structured NaYF4: Yb3+, Er3+/Au/CdS architecture delivers enhanced photocatalytic
bio-ethanol reforming activity under low-density NIR light irradiation.