Inducing plasmonic characteristics, primarily localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), in conventional AuNPs through particle size and shape control could lead to a significant enhancement in electrical, electrochemical, and optical properties. Synthetic protocols and versatile fabrication methods play pivotal roles to produced plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which can be employed in multipurpose energy, environmental and biomedical applications. The main focus of this review is to provide a comprehensive and tutorial overview of various synthetic methods to design highly plasmonic AuNPs, along with a brief essay to understand the experimental procedure for each technique. The latter part of the review is dedicated to the most advanced and recent solar-induced energy, environmental and biomedical applications. The synthesis methods are compared to identify the best possible synthetic route, which can be adopted while employing plasmonic AuNPs for a specific application. The tutorial nature of the review would be helpful not only for expert researchers but also for novices in the field of nanomaterial synthesis and utilization of plasmonic nanomaterials in various industries and technologies.

Investigating novel materials with controlled morphology for solar-driven conversions is the foremost research emphasis in applied sciences. In continuation of those efforts, we report the unique synthesis of a novel trimetallic β-Cu 2 V 2 O 7 / Zn 2 V 2 O 6 (CZVO) hybrid with controlled morphology. The trimetallic CZVO demonstrates a bifunctional, non-sacrificial photoresponse in the cases of 1) photocatalytic degradation using methylene blue (MB) as a model dye; and 2) photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of CZVO confirmed Type-(I) heterojunction formation between β-Cu 2 V 2 O 7 (CVO) and Zn 2 V 2 O 6 (ZVO). After visible light exposure (65 min), CZVO-opt (1 wt% CVO: 5 wt% ZVO) demonstrated the highest photodegradation, while the CZVO-opt photoanode delivered the highest photocurrent density (I ph ) of 1.78 mA cm À2 at 1.23 V RHE , almost 3.11 and 1.55 times more than CVO (I ph ¼ 0.57 mA cm À2 ) and ZVO (I ph ¼ 1.15 mA cm À2 ) photoanodes, respectively. The CZVO-opt photoanode harvested the most solar energy in terms of incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE 320 nm ¼ 37.93%). The significant improvement in the CZVO-opt performance can be attributed to the firm contact and uniform distribution of ZVO NPs over CVO interlayered nanosheets, which leads to adequate solar absorption and facile charge transport through a Type-(I) heterojunction with suppresses charge recombination.

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