Figure 14.

One application of plasmonic photocatalysis is to help extend the optical absorption capabilities of semiconductor photocatalysts, such as TiO₂ (that largely absorb in the UV-Vis range) to visible photons. LSPR peaks in the visible spectral range for various cross-architectures of Ag/TiO₂ plasmonic nanostructures (Left), as utilized in the work of Zhao et al. [176] Reprinted with permission from Ref [176] with attribution and adherence to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) 4.0. Similarly, Castillo et al. [177] present (Right, (a)) the UV-vis-NIR spectra of free Au nanoparticles of varying structures from nanospheres (black), nanostars (blue), and nanorods (red), along with that of the UV-vis-NIR spectra of the same Au nanoparticles after they are adsorbed onto SiO₂ beads following coating with TiO₂ nanoparticles: SiO₂@Au nanospheres@TiO₂ (black), SiO₂@Au nanostars@TiO₂ (blue), and SiO₂@Au nanorods@TiO₂ (red). Thus, they are able to identify the unique absorption signatures of the three different morphologies along with a host of other properties including the locations of plasmon modes as evidenced by the peaks, and the fact that the UV-vis spectra of the composite structures (Right, (b)) display strong absorption bands at longer wavelengths. Reprinted with permission from Ref [177] Copyright American Chemical Society (2016).