Effects of external light in the magnetic field-modulated photocatalytic reactions in a microfluidic chip reactor

Abstract

Photocatalytic reactions and their magnetic-field enhancement present significant potential for practical applications in green chemistry. This work presents the mutual enhancement of plasmonic photocatalytic reaction by externally applied magnetic field and plasmonic enhancement in a micro optofluidic chip reactor. The tiny gold (Au) nanoparticles of only a few atoms fixed on the surface of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles lead to mutually boosted enhancement photocatalytic reactions under an external magnetic field and plasmonic effects. The dominant factor of adding green light to the photocatalytic reaction leads to the understanding that it is a plasmonic effect. The positive results of adding ethanol alcohol (EA) in the experiments further present that it is a hot electron dominant path photocatalytic reaction that is positively enhanced by both the external magnetic field and plasmonic effects. This work offers great potential for utilizing magnetic field enhancement in plasmonic photocatalytic reactions.