Highly efficient photocatalytic overall water splitting on plasmonic Cu6Sn5/polyaniline nanocomposites.

[Display omitted] • Plasmonic Cu 6 Sn 5 bimetal was prepared using chemical reduction method. • Photocatalytic activity was enhanced for Cu 6 Sn 5 after combined with polyaniline. • A mechanism of plasmon-driven photocatalytic water splitting was proposed. A plasmonic Cu 6 Sn 5 /polyaniline (Cu 6 Sn 5 /PANI) nanocomposite was synthesized by chemical reduction and hydrothermal methods. The best photocatalytic overall water splitting performance was achieved by the Cu 6 Sn 5 /PANI 3wt% composite, which contains 3 wt% PANI, which is approximately three times more than that of pure Cu 6 Sn 5. Meanwhile, Cu 6 Sn 5 /PANI 3wt% exhibited excellent photocatalytic stability for water splitting during the stability investigation. The dramatic promotion of the photocatalytic activity performance can be ascribed to the cocatalyst PANI. The existence of PANI can remarkably promote the separation and transfer efficiency of the photoinduced electron-hole pairs, and therefore enhance the photocatalytic activity. Our results also verify that the photogenerated charge comes from plasmonic Cu 6 Sn 5 with the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect, which is different from traditional semiconductor-based photocatalysts. This work sheds some light on plasmonic photocatalyst development and provides an alternative pathway for photocatalytic reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]