Search for: All records

Plasmonic photocatalysis presents a promising method for light-to-matter conversion. However, most current studies focused on understanding the relative importance of thermal and nonthermal effects while their synergistic effects remained less studied. Here, we propose an index, termed Overall Light Effectiveness (OLE), to capture the combined impact of these light effects on reactions. By systematically varying the thickness of catalyst layers, we isolated thermal and nonthermal contributions and optimized them to achieve maximum light enhancement. We demonstrate the approach using carbon dioxide hydrogenation reaction on titania-supported rhodium nanoparticles as a model reaction system. It shows a generalizable potential in designing catalyst systems with optimum combinations of heating and light illumination, especially with broadband light illumination such as sunlight, for achieving the most economical light-to-matter conversion in plasmonic catalysis.