Controlling energy flow in multimetallic nanostructures for plasmonic catalysis
Top Cited Papers
- 17 July 2017
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Nanotechnology
- Vol. 12 (10), 1000-1005
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.131
Abstract
It has been shown that photoexcitation of plasmonic metal nanoparticles (Ag, Au and Cu) can induce direct photochemical reactions. However, the widespread application of this technology in catalysis has been limited by the relatively poor chemical reactivity of noble metal surfaces. Despite efforts to combine plasmonic and catalytic metals, the physical mechanisms that govern energy transfer from plasmonic metals to catalytic metals remain unclear. Here we show that hybrid core-shell nanostructures in which a core plasmonic metal harvests visible-light photons can selectively channel that energy into catalytically active centres on the nanostructure shell. To accomplish this, we developed a synthetic protocol to deposit a few monolayers of Pt onto Ag nanocubes. This model system allows us to conclusively separate the optical and catalytic functions of the hybrid nanomaterial and determine that the flow of energy is strongly biased towards the excitation of energetic charge carriers in the Pt shell. We demonstrate the utility of these nanostructures for photocatalytic chemical reactions in the preferential oxidation of CO in excess H2. Our data demonstrate that the reaction occurs exclusively on the Pt surface.This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Activation Energies of Plasmonic CatalystsNano Letters, 2016
- Alloying Gold with Copper Makes for a Highly Selective Visible-Light Photocatalyst for the Reduction of Nitroaromatics to AnilinesACS Catalysis, 2016
- Photochemical transformations on plasmonic metal nanoparticlesNature Materials, 2015
- Activation of Oxygen on Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Assisted by Surface Plasmon ResonancesAngewandte Chemie-International Edition, 2014
- Direct Photocatalysis by Plasmonic NanostructuresACS Catalysis, 2013
- Tuning Selectivity in Propylene Epoxidation by Plasmon Mediated Photo-Switching of Cu Oxidation StateScience, 2013
- Hot Electrons Do the Impossible: Plasmon-Induced Dissociation of H2 on AuNano Letters, 2012
- Plasmonic-metal nanostructures for efficient conversion of solar to chemical energyNature Materials, 2011
- The Optical Properties of Metal Nanoparticles: The Influence of Size, Shape, and Dielectric EnvironmentThe Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2002
- Spectral Properties and Relaxation Dynamics of Surface Plasmon Electronic Oscillations in Gold and Silver Nanodots and NanorodsThe Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 1999