Bi2WO6 Nanosheets Decorated with Au Nanorods for Enhanced Near-Infrared Photocatalytic Properties Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance Effects and Wide-Range Near-Infrared Light Harvesting

Recently, near-infrared light (NIR) photocatalysts, such as up-converting materials, Bi2WO6, Cu-2(OH)PO4, and carbon quantum dots, have been found and are attracting attention for environmental cleaning and energy conversion, because NIR light constitutes nearly half of the energy output. However, the photocatalytic efficiency is low for these new types of NIR photocatalysts, which has limited their widespread application owing to their insufficient NIR-light absorption. In this work, we use gold (Au) nanorods to enhance the NIR-light absorption of Bi2WO6, a typical visible and novel NIR-light photocatalyst, thus the enhancement of its NIR-light photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical properties are achieved. This can be attributed to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects and wide-range NIR light harvesting of the Au nanorods. The present work provides key guidelines for the improvement of NIR-light photocatalysts and could also help design and prepare novel photocatalysts.