Selective synthesis of desirable products and precursors is a continual goal in chemical catalysis. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in metal nanoparticles has proven to be an effective manner in which to promote photocatalysis, especially compared to conventional semiconducting photocatalysts (<i>e.g. </i>ZnO, TiO<sub>2</sub>). Efforts to pair plasmonic metal nanoparticles with these conventional oxide catalysts show promise for the tunable selectivity for a variety of end products. Herein is reported a well-known plasmonic photocatalyst which exhibits light-directed selectivity of phenol derivatives. Through a combination of chemical computations and quenching experiments, it is suggested that this selectivity is dictated by radical pathways initiated by plasmonic excitations. Different selective products were observed for Au/ZnO photocatalysts under visible and UV light sources.

Exploiting surface plasmon resonance in Au/ZnO photocatalysts for the selective oxidation of phenols

255th National Meeting (2018)

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