Abstract Sunlight-driven H 2 generation is a central technology to tackle our impending carbon-based energy collapse. Colloidal photocatalysts consisting of plasmonic and catalytic nanoparticles are promising for H 2 production at solar irradiances, but their performance is hindered by absorption and multiscattering events. Here we present a two-dimensional bimetallic catalyst by incorporating platinum nanoparticles into a well-defined supercrystal of gold nanoparticles. The bimetallic supercrystal exhibited an H 2 generation rate of $$139\,{\mathrm{mmol}}\,{\mathrm{g}}_{\mathrm{cat}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{h}}^{-1}$$ 139 mmol g cat − 1 h − 1 via formic acid dehydrogenation under visible light illumination and solar irradiance. This configuration makes it possible to study the interaction between the two metallic materials and the influence of this in catalysis. We observe a correlation between the intensity of the electric field in the hotspots and the boosted catalytic activity of platinum nanoparticles, while identifying a minor role of heat and gold-to-platinum charge transfer in the enhancement. Our results demonstrate the benefits of two-dimensional configurations with optimized architecture for liquid-phase photocatalysis.

Moritz Kessens

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