Laser-assisted photocatalysed degradation of pollutants using semiconductors in electronic contact with gold nanoparticles

Abstract : In this work we investigate the coupling between Plasmonic gold nanostructures and catalyst supports such as TiO2, ZnO and Al2O3 in order to study the photocatalytic degradation of Bisphenol A (BPA) under visible laser excitation. The experimental investigations have shown extremely fast and complete photodegradation of organic pollutants in water. The influence of photocatalyst band gap on the catalytic activity was investigated as well. Au/TiO2 catalyst showed the fastest degradation of BPA due to efficient electron transfer from excited noble metal Gold nanoparticles to the semiconductor.