Photodeposition of AuNPs on metal oxides: Study of SPR effect and photocatalytic activity

Effect of photodeposition of AuNPs (gold nanoparticles) on TiO2, CeO2, Cu2O and Fe3O4 supports has been illustrated on sacrificial donor based hydrogen evolution. The synthesized samples were characterized by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Highest photocatalytic activity was exhibited by Au/TiO2 followed by Au/Fe3O4, Au/CeO2 and Au/Cu2O. Au/TiO2 under optimized conditions has shown significantly high photocatalytic activity under both UV–visible and visible radiation. Au/TiO2 shows hydrogen evolution rate of 920 μmol h−1 and 32.4 μmol h−1 under UV–visible and visible radiation, respectively. Significant enhancement in hydrogen evolution rate under visible light is very encouraging and may be attributed to polydispersed nature of AuNPs wherein larger particles facilitate light absorption and the smaller function as catalytic sites. Further studies are in progress to study the influence of various parameters on photocatalytic activity of Au/TiO2.