Water splitting catalyzed by titanium dioxide decorated with plasmonic nanoparticles

The development of active, cheap, efficient and visible-light-driven water splitting catalysts is currently the center of intense research efforts. Amongst the most promising avenues, the design of titania and plasmonic nanoparticle hybrids is particularly appealing. Titania has been known for long to be an active photocatalyst, able to perform water splitting under light irradiation. However, this activity is limited to the ultraviolet spectrum and suffers from too rapid charge carrier recombination. The addition of plasmonic nanostructures enables to push absorption properties to the visible region and prevent unwanted charge recombination. In this review, we explain the principles behind the activity of such nanohybrids towards visible light water splitting and detail the recent research developments relying on plasmonic metals, namely Au, Ag and Cu.