Nature Mater.http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat3454 (2012)

Photocatalysis using semiconductor materials is showing promise, but some researchers think the properties of metals make them more suitable for this application. Phillip Christopher and co-workers from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Riverside, USA, have found that plasmonic metallic nanostructures behave quite differently from semiconductors in their role as a photocatalyst. Specifically, they demonstrated that the photocatalytic reaction rates of metallic nanostructures exhibit a superlinear power law dependence on light intensity. Additionally, photocatalytic quantum efficiencies seem to increase with light intensity and operating temperature, which is not the case for semiconductors. The researchers hope that these characteristics will allow plasmonic nanostructures to become a new family of photocatalysts for reactions that cannot be activated by conventional metals or semiconductors.