UC Merced

Metallic nanoparticles have been demonstrated to be versatile photocatalysts, as exemplified by those made from noble and precious metals. Transitioning from precious to earth-abundant metals for sustainable photocatalysis requires benchmarking their catalytic performance. In this work, we attempt to compare the photocatalytic activities of Au, Pd, and Co-B nanoparticles in the reduction of nitrobenzene by hydrazine. Despite their different morphologies and surface structures, Co-B nanoparticles offer the highest catalytic enhancement when comparing their reaction rates under irradiation to those under nonirradiation conditions. The trend of improved photocatalytic performance when transitioning from Au to Pd, and then to Co-B, can be explained by the nature of their d-band positions and corresponding hot carriers photogenerated from interband transitions.