Quantifying plasmon resonance and interband transition contributions in photocatalysis of gold nanoparticle

Localized surface plasmon has been extensively studied and used for the photocatalysis of various chemical reactions. However, the different contributions between plasmon resonance and interband transition in photocatalysis has not been well understood. Here, we study the photothermal and hot electrons effects for crystal transformation by combining controlled experiments with numerical simulations. By photo-excitation of NaYF₄:Eu³⁺@Au composite structure, it is found that the plasmonic catalysis is much superior to that of interband transition in the experiments, owing to the hot electrons generated by plasmon decay more energetic to facilitate the reaction. We emphasize that the energy level of hot electrons plays an essential role for improving the photocatalytic activity. The results provide guidelines for improving the efficiency of plasmonic catalysis in future experimental design.