Harnessing single-active plasmonic nanostructures for enhanced photocatalysis under visible light

Abstract

The past several decades have witnessed the fast-growing field of plasmonics, which localize and concentrate incident light at the nanoscale and provide a source of light, heat and energetic carriers. Plasmonic nanostructures, which are able to harvest and convert the abundant sunlight to drive chemical reactions, have shown great prospects in heterogeneous photocatalysis. To maximize solar energy utilization, the rational design and precise manipulation of plasmonic nanostructures are, therefore, essential to obtain their strong light–matter interaction. In this review, we focus on the very recent advances in harnessing single-active plasmonic nanocatalysts (i.e., plasmonic materials as the only photo- and catalytic-active species), involving noble metals and doped-semiconductors, for enhanced photocatalytic reactions with visible light.