Sunlight driven methanol oxidation by anisotropic plasmonic Au nanostructures supported on amorphous titania: Influence of morphology on photocatalytic activity

In this work, we have developed nanocomposites using a facile Green chemistry approach by coupling Au nanostructures (nanorods, nanohexagons and nanostars) with amorphous titania, and have utilized them as sunlight driven photocatalysts for the industrially relevant conversion of methanol to formaldehyde at ambient conditions. Specifically, we have investigated in detail the influence of morphology of Au nanostructures on the photocatalytic activity. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.