“…In this context, different silica-supported semiconductor nanocomposites with improved photocatalytic performance than the corresponding single-component materials have been reported. Examples of silica-supported photocatalysts include SiO 2 /TiO 2 [63,72,123,124] SiO 2 /TiO 2 /CdS [125], SiO 2 /C 3 N 4 [126], SiO 2 /TiO 2 /C 3 N 4 [36] , SiO 2 /WO 3 [127] , SiO 2 /CuO [128,129], SiO 2 /ZnIn 2 S 4 [130] , SiO 2 /ZnO [131], SiO 2 /Ag 3 PO 4 [132] and SiO 2 /FAPbBr 3 [133] among others. While this wide variety of studies clearly demonstrates that silica is outstanding insulating support for the design of photocatalytic systems for energy and environmental applications, the origins of improved photocatalytic performance are debatable and often attributed to a combination of factors, including increased adsorption of reactant molecules, improved structural and textural properties, increased photonic efficiency related to optical scattering as well as changes in the electronic structure of the resulting support-photocatalyst systems [27,55,121].…”