Materials Chemistry and Physics 241 (2020) 122415 Available online 14 November 2019 0254-0584/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Gold hybrid nanomaterials: Prospective on photocatalytic activities for wastewater treatment application Muhamad Syamim Akmal Che Mansor a, b , Muhammad Nur Iman Amir a , Nurhidayatullaili Muhd Julkapli b, * , Azman Ma’amor a a Department of Chemistry, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia b Nanotechnology & Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia HIGHLIGHTS � Development of novel AuNPs photocatalyst for water remediation. � Characteristics and advantages of AuNPs in photocatalytic technology. � Different active and inactive functional supports for improving photocatalytic performance of AuNPs. � Synthesis of different functional AuNPs supports using various methodologies. A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Solar Band gap Adsorption Nanoparticles Photocatalysis ABSTRACT Nowadays, water pollution caused by the discharge of organic pollutants into our natural water resources originating from different industries poses a severe threat to the environment. In order to mitigate this problem, photocatalysis system has been used. However, this process mainly focuses on metal oxide semiconductors as photocatalysts for the degradation of organic pollutants. Even though metal oxides have excellent activity under UV irradiation, the high degree of recombination between photogenerated charges and the wide band gap reduce the effciency under solar irradiation. AuNPs have attracted much attention due to the exceptional visible light absorption of 2.30 ev–2.40 ev and high electron storage capacity which acts as a sink for photo-induced charge carriers. The integration of plasmonic AuNPs is an effective strategy to promote solar light harvesting as well as effcient photocatalysis up to 96–99%. The novelty of this review is highlighted on the recent studies of intrinsic AuNP’s properties with the integration of carbon nanomaterials, ceramics and polymers as functional support to improve the photocatalytic activity under solar irradiation. The benefts and shortcomings of the various sup- ports as well as the effectiveness on different targeted organic pollutants and dyes are explored in further details. 1. Introduction The scarcity of good quality water is a global issue. The rise of world’s population combined with limited freshwater resources lead to the need for sustainable water supply. For the past decades, the increase of residual effuents originating from different industries including textile, pharmaceutical, bleaching, dyeing, paper and pulp industries has been introducing a variety of organic pollutants into our natural water resources and poses a severe threat to the environment [1–3]. These toxic chemicals are less prone to natural degradation and cause ecological problems by depleting the dissolved oxygen in water. The application of conventional treatment methods which includes various physical, chemical and biological processes is still unreliable due to poor treatment effciency, high cost and requires frequent maintenances [4]. This become the main reason new approaches are continuously being examined to improve and innovate traditional water treatment method. The extraordinary properties of nanomaterials such as high surface area, photosensitivity, catalytic activity, electrochemical, optical and mag- netic properties provide useful features for photocatalysis applications [5]. There are various applications of nanomaterial and nano-technological processes stated in different stages, however, most them are still in the phase of research works [6]. Since this approach is new, a possible problem for now, in terms of maintenance are the elimination of accumulated contaminants from nanomaterials and the * Corresponding author. E-mail address: nurhidayatullaili@um.edu.my (N. Muhd Julkapli). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Chemistry and Physics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matchemphys https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2019.122415 Received 2 May 2019; Received in revised form 24 October 2019; Accepted 5 November 2019