Effect of Photocharging on Catalysis of Metallic Nanoparticles

The photocharging effect is widely known across different research fields, has rarely been quantified as a background contribution in photocatalysis, and has often been overlooked in mechanistic interpretation of nanoparticle photocatalysts. To address these issues, this work presents a two-step experiment: charging colloidal Pd nanoparticles with light and hole scavengers and using the charged particles to catalyze the reduction of 4-nitrophenol by NaBH4 under non-irradiation conditions. Experimental kinetics demonstrated a proportional correlation between accumulated electrons and catalytic improvement of Pd nanoparticles. This work reminds us that photocharged nanoparticles may still catalyze chemical reactions as a background phenomenon even when they are not undergoing photoexcitation.