Recent development on palladium enhanced photocatalytic activity: A review

Photocatalysis has been recently developed and implemented in various areas. Almost all reported works still focus on the fundamental studies on a lab scale, due to the limitations of the low quantum efficiency under solar light. The key to overcome the low photocatalytic activity is in improving the separation of photogenerated charge carriers. Various approaches have been adopted and reported, among which the loading of noble metal nanoparticles onto the surface has been recognized as an effective method in promoting the photocatalytic activity of a substrate. Not only can metal nanoparticles suppress the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, but they can also be activated by visible light photons to produce the surface plasmonic resonance effect. The primarily studied plasmonic metals are silver, gold and platinum. Recently, our group and other groups have found that palladium may be another promising plasmonic metal in improving the visible light-driven photocatalytic activity. In this review, most of reported works on palladium enhanced plasmonic photocatalysis have been comprehensively reviewed and will serve as a good reference to guide future works. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.