Development of visible-light-responsive morphology-controlled brookite TiO2 nanorods by site-selective loading of AuAg bimetallic nanoparticles

[Display omitted] •Brookite TiO2 nanorods loaded with AuAg bimetallic nanoparticles are fabricated.•AuAg nanoparticles provide good stability and high surface plasmon resonance effect.•AuAg-TiO2 shows higher photocatalytic performance than that of Au-TiO2 and Ag-TiO2.•AuAg-TiO2 exhibits acetone production of 102 ppm under visible light irradiation. Morphology-controlled brookite TiO2 nanorods loaded with AuAg bimetallic nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile photoreduction process to develop visible-light-responsive photocatalytic performance. The AuAg bimetallic nanoparticles provide good stability and excellent localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect. Moreover, the AuAg bimetallic nanoparticles were selectively deposited on the reduction facets of brookite TiO2 nanorods, facilitating the charge separation. As expected, the as-prepared AuAg-TiO2 nanorods showed enhanced visible light harvesting and decreased electron-hole recombination, resulting in superior visible-light-responsive photocatalytic performance. When the loading amount of AuAg nanoparticles was controlled at 0.5 wt%, the AuAg-TiO2 nanorods yield 102 ppm acetone with visible-light irradiation for 5 h, far exceeding than those of bare brookite TiO2 nanorods.