Toward rational design of palladium nanoparticles with plasmonically enhanced catalytic performance

Abstract

Palladium is a plasmonic metal, however plasmonically mediated enhancement of catalytic performance of Pd nanoparticles is underexplored. We report plasmonically mediated enhancement of catalytic performance of Pd-based nanoparticles with different shapes and internal structure. We found that Pd-only nanoparticles with geometry promoting plasmonic light concentration show stronger effect on light-induced catalytic performance than hybrid Pd-based nanoparticles with a ‘canonic’ plasmonic metal (Au) core. Our findings pave the way for the design, synthesis and fabrication of Pd nanocatalysts with enhanced performance under visible light illumination.