Currently, photocatalytic oxidation of organic pollutants under visible light illumination has become one of the most important subjects in the field of photocatalysis. This is owing to its intimate relationship with the environmental issues and energy saving. Generally, due to their surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorptions, nanostructured noble metals could display distinct absorptions in the visible light region. This practically opens up new opportunities and avenues for the development of visible-light-driven photocatalysts. It has recently been demonstrated that Ag/AgX (X=Cl, Br, I) based plasmonic photocatalysts could display excellent and stable photocatalytic performance for the photodegradation of organic pollutants under sunlight or visible-light irradiations. In the past few years, great progress have been achieved with regard to this kind of new type visible-light-driven plasmonic photocatalysts. In this review, we would like to highlight the recent progress concerning the Ag/AgX based plasmonic photocatalyst. The main content of this review includes: (i) the mechanism of the Ag/AgX based plasmonic photocatalyst; (ii) the fabrication of the Ag/AgX based plasmonic photocatalyst; and (iii) photocatalytic performance of the Ag/AgX based plasmonic photocatalyst. At the end of this review, the prospects and problems of this kind of plasmonic photocatalysts are also addressed briefly. Contents
1 Introduction
2 Mechanism of the Ag/AgX-based plasmonic photocatalysis
3 Methods for synthesis of the Ag/AgX-based nanospecies
3.1 Methods for synthesis of the AgX species
3.2 Methods for synthesis of the Ag/AgX species
4 Photocatalytic performances of the Ag/AgX-based plasmonic photocatalysts
4.1 Hybridized with inorganic semiconductors
4.2 Hybridized with graphene species
4.3 Hybridized with other materials
4.4 Morphology dependent photocatalytic performance of the Ag/AgX-based plasmonic photocatalysts
4.5 Others
5 Others applications
6 Conclusion and outlook