Ag decorated silica nanostructures for surface plasmon enhanced photocatalysis.

In this article, we present a novel synthesis of mesoporous SiO/Ag nanostructures for dye (methylene blue) adsorption and surface plasmon mediated photocatalysis. Mesoporous SiO nanoparticles with a pore size of 3.2 nm were synthesized using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a structure directing agent and functionalized with (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane to introduce amine groups.