Mousavi, H.Small, T.D.Sharma, S.K.Golovko, V.B.Shearer, C.J.Metha, G.F.2022-11-152022-11-152022Nanomaterials, 2022; 12(20):3638-1-3638-132079-49912079-4991https://hdl.handle.net/2440/136882Published: 17 October 2022Herein, the UV light photocatalytic activity of an Au101NC-AlSrTiO3-rGO nanocomposite comprising 1 wt% rGO, 0.05 wt% Au101(PPh3)21Cl5 (Au101NC), and AlSrTiO3 evaluated for H2 production. The synthesis of Au101NC-AlSrTiO3-rGO nanocomposite followed two distinct routes: (1) Au101NC was first mixed with AlSrTiO3 followed by the addition of rGO (Au101NC-AlSrTiO3:rGO) and (2) Au101NC was first mixed with rGO followed by the addition of AlSrTiO3 (Au101NC-rGO:AlSrTiO3). Both prepared samples were annealed in air at 210 °C for 15 min. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy showed that the Au101NC adhered almost exclusively to the rGO in the nanocomposite and maintained a size less than 2 nm. Under UV light irradiation, the Au101NC-AlSrTiO3:rGO nanocomposite produced H2 at a rate 12 times greater than Au101NC-AlSrTiO3 and 64 times greater than AlSrTiO3. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is attributed to the small particle size and high loading of Au101NC, which is achieved by non-covalent binding to rGO. These results show that significant improvements can be made to AlSrTiO3-based photocatalysts that use cluster co-catalysts by the addition of rGO as an electron mediator to achieve high cluster loading and limited agglomeration of the clusters.en© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).gold nanocluster; reduced graphene oxide; SrTiO3; photocatalysis; hydrogen evolution reactionJournal article10.3390/nano122036382022-11-14625636Small, T.D. [0000-0001-9978-5490]Shearer, C.J. [0000-0002-8192-3696]Metha, G.F. [0000-0003-1094-0947]