Plasmonic silver incorporated silver halides for efficient photocatalysis

The development of visible-light-responsive photocatalysts is a promising challenge in the management of environmental pollution. Silver–silver halide nano-photocatalysts have received intensive attention due to their excellent photocatalytic performance in recent years, where silver nanoparticles/nanoclusters demonstrate plasmonic enhanced light absorption efficiency and have been considered as an important component in various functional photocatalytic nanocomposite materials, serving for harvesting visible light. This review provides an overall survey on the state-of-the-art silver–silver halide-based photocatalysts, fundamental understanding of their plasmonically induced photo-reactions and their major environmental applications. We first discuss the basic concepts of localized surface plasmon resonance, and outline the general mechanism of silver–silver halide-based photocatalysis. We then discuss the latest progress in the design and fabrication of silver halide based photocatalysis using various strategies. Next, we highlight some selected examples to demonstrate the new applications of silver/silver halide nano-photocatalysts. Eventually, we provide an outlook of the present challenges and some perspectives of new directions in this interesting and emerging research area.