Icosahedral AuPd/carbonized poly-dopamine sphere@TiO2 yolk-shell nano-photoreactor for plasmon-enhanced catalytic activity and stability

Icosahedral AuPd bimetallic nanoparticles exhibit the localized surface plasmon resonance effect with their excellent thermocatalytic activity. However, the nanoparticle aggregation and recovery difficulty challenge the widespread adoption. In this work, we designed and fabricated a yolk-shell structured icosahedral AuPd/carbonized poly-dopamine sphere@titanium dioxide (I-AuPd/C-PDA@TiO 2 ), which exhibited excellent catalytic performance towards photocatalytic selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol (BA). Specifically, the introduction of C-PDA not only improved the chemical stability of AuPd nanoparticles but also promoted electron transfer . Meanwhile, the controlled growth of monodisperse icosahedral AuPd benefited the selective oxidation of BA due to the LSPR effect. Compared to yolk-shell Pd/C-PDA@TiO 2 , Au/C-PDA@TiO 2 and spherical AuPd/C-PDA@TiO 2 (S-AuPd/C-PDA@TiO 2 ) photocatalysts , I-AuPd/C-PDA@TiO 2 showed the highest catalytic performance with 96.0% conversion rate and 99% selectivity in 6 h under an O 2 -saturated reaction environment. Moreover, no obvious performance decay was observed with I-AuPd/C-PDA@TiO 2 after five successive cycles, confirming the outstanding stability of I-AuPd/C-PDA@TiO 2 . The current strategy would be a significant contribution of AuPd bimetallic nanocrystals for plasmon-enhanced catalysis.