Visible-Light-Driven Plasmonic Photocatalysis Enhanced by Charge Accumulation

Plasmon-induced charge separation (PICS) has been applied to photocatalysis, photovoltaics, chemical sensing, and so on. Photoelectrodes based on PICS were developed by inserting plasmonic gold nanoparticles to the interface between n-type semiconductor TiO2 and p-type semiconductor Ni(OH)(2) or CrOx, so that electrons and holes are injected into the former and the latter, respectively. Those p-type materials accumulate positive charges and enhance multi-electron oxidations. The positive charges accumulated under illumination can also be used for driving oxidation reactions after dark. More information can be found in the Full Paper by Tetsu Tatsuma et al.