Plasmonic photocatalysis: an extraordinary way to harvest visible light

Abstract Plasmonic photocatalysis is an emerging growing field in heterogeneous catalysis to improve the performance of photocatalytic systems by harvesting the visible-light spectrum of sunlight effectively. In plasmonic photocatalysis, the deposited noble-metal nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit powerful collective oscillations of surface electrons when interacts with a light called localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) and then decay into high energetic hot electrons. Especially, in the case of plasmonic photocatalysis, the generated hot electrons through LSPR can increase the rate of photocatalysis by multiple times with light intensity, in contrast to semiconductor photocatalysis. This chapter aims to offer a systematic study of the basics of plasmonic photocatalysis, synthesis methods for the noble-metal NPs’ deposition, roles of noble-metal NPs in plasmonic photocatalysis, and the diverse applications of plasmonic photocatalysis, including wastewater treatment, H2 generation from water splitting, N2 fixation, CO2 reduction, antimicrobial agents, and production of fine chemicals.