Adsorption of gaseous ethylene via induced polarization on plasmonic photocatalyst Ag/AgCl/TiO2 and subsequent photodegradation

•The ethylene photo-oxidation efficiency of Ag/AgCl/TiO2 is higher than that of P25.•Nonpolar ethylene molecules can be polarized by SPR-enhanced electric field.•Polarized ethylene molecules are easily adsorbed on the surface of the photocatalyst.•The new mechanism of ethylene photo-oxidation by plasmonic photocatalyst is proposed.

The removal of nonpolar gaseous ethylene molecules on the plasmonic photocatalyst Ag/AgCl/TiO2 was examined under simulated sunlight irradiation, to find that it has a markedly high activity for the oxidation of ethylene molecules. Systematic experiments, carried out to probe the cause for this observation, indicate that the strong electric field mainly on the Ag nanoparticles (NPs) generated by their surface plasmon resonance (SPR) induces polarization in gaseous ethylene molecules hence enhancing their adsorption on the catalysts and their subsequent photodegradation, and that TiO2 acts as a substrate for dispersing Ag/AgCl nanoparticles to have a larger active surface area. This study provides new ideas towards designing advanced photocatalysts for the degradation of nonpolar gaseous molecules.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (120KB)Download full-size image