title: New insight into daylight photocatalysis of AgBr@Ag: synergistic effect between semiconductor photocatalysis and plasmonic photocatalysis.
abstract: Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) are often used as electron scavengers in conventional semiconductor photocatalysis to suppress electron-hole (e(-)-h(+) ) recombination and promote interfacial charge transfer, and thus enhance photocatalytic activity of semiconductors. In this contribution, it is demonstrated that noble metal NPs such as Ag NPs function as visible-light harvesting and electron-generating centers during the daylight photocatalysis of AgBr@Ag. Novel Ag plasmonic photocatalysis could cooperate with the conventional AgBr semiconductor photocatalysis to enhance the overall daylight activity of AgBr@Ag greatly because of an interesting synergistic effect. After a systematic investigation of the daylight photocatalysis mechanism of AgBr@Ag, the synergistic effect was attributed to surface plasmon resonance induced local electric field enhancement on Ag, which can accelerate the generation of e(-)-h(+) pairs in AgBr, so that more electrons are produced in the conduction band of AgBr under daylight irradiation. This study provides new insight into the photocatalytic mechanism of noble metal/semiconductor systems as well as the design and fabrication of novel plasmonic photocatalysts.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, PR China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Lizhi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001965:Bromides / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D008027:Light; D008872:Microwaves; D053758:Nanoparticles; D010777:Photochemistry; D010782:Photolysis; D012666:Semiconductors; D018030:Silver Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001965:Bromides; D018030:Silver Compounds; C047751:silver bromide