Interfacial interaction of plasmonic nanoparticles (Ag, Au) decorated floweret TiO2 nanorod hybrids for enhanced visible light driven photocatalytic activity

Highlights: • Interfacial interaction of Au based hybrids is studied using XPS. • Variation in work function of small size Au PNPs hybrids is investigated by UPS. • Small size (2 nm) Au PNPs have better plasmonic activity than Ag PNPs over TONRs. • Overall photocatalytic activity of Au based hybrid is better than Ag based hybrid. • Catalytic activity of Au based hybrids is good under green light long pass filter. One dimensional TiO₂ nanorods (TONRs) hybrids have enormous potential for photocatalytic applications. Integrating TONRs with plasmonic Nanoparticles (PNPs) to form hybrid structures enhances its photocatalytic activity by local surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) effect. The Present work reports PNPs decorated TONRs for visible light driven photocatalytic activity. PNPs of silver (Ag) and gold (Au) with different sizes are decorated over TONRs to form PNP-TONRs hybrids. The size of Ag and Au PNPs are engineered by using inert gas evaporation method at different vapour pressures. The microRaman studies of hybrids reveal the enhanced Eg mode due to SERS effect. The decoration of Au PNPs with small size PNPs on TONRs have been found efficacious to alter Schottky effect and plasmonic activity. PNPs-TONRs hybrids are further explored for photocatalytic activity. The overall photocatalytic activity of small sized Au based hybrids is better than Ag based hybrids owing to their better Schottky effect and plasmonic activity.