Plasmon-Induced Electrocatalysis with Multi-Component Nanostructures

Abstract

Noble metal nanostructures are exceptional light absorbing systems, in which electron–hole pairs can be formed and used as “hot” charge carriers for catalytic applications. The main goal of the emerging field of plasmon-induced catalysis is to design a novel way of finely tuning the activity and selectivity of heterogeneous catalysts. The designed strategies for the preparation of plasmonic nanomaterials for catalytic systems are highly crucial to achieve improvement in the performance of targeted catalytic reactions and processes. While there is a growing number of composite materials for photochemical processes-mediated by hot charge carriers, the reports on plasmon-enhanced electrochemical catalysis and their investigated reactions are still scarce. This review provides a brief overview of the current understanding of the charge flow within plasmon-enhanced electrochemically active nanostructures and their synthetic methods. It is intended to shed light on the recent progress achieved in the synthesis of multi-component nanostructures, in particular for the plasmon-mediated electrocatalysis of major fuel-forming and fuel cell reactions.

Plasmonic Materials: Opportunities and Challenges on Reticular Chemistry for Photocatalytic Applications

“…Mechanism pathways of LSPR can be classified into 2 major groups: Radiative‐nonradiative decays and direct‐indirect mechanisms. The radiative decay ( Figure 2a ) , upon which the plasmon decays into photons resulting in strong light‐scattering effects, [29] enables the intramolecular excitation of molecules. The energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) matches the energy of the re‐emissive photons from plasmonic materials [30] .…”

Plasmonics and its Applications

“…In the second and last part, the discussed topics are devoted to chemistry and sensing, such as surface-enhanced fluorescence, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy, and electrocatalysis by using plasmonics [34,35,36,37,38,39,40]. Concerning the surface-enhanced fluorescence, Lu et al numerically demonstrated a high enhancement effect of the fluorescence signal obtained with a hybrid metal-dielectric nano-aperture antenna consisting of silicon and gold layers [34].…”

“…To conclude this part, as well as this special issue dedicated to “ Plasmonics and its Applications ”, Subramanian et al presented a review on the electrocatalysis induced by plasmon with multi-component nanostructures. Indeed, the authors highlight the recent progress obtained in the synthesis of these multi-component nanostructures, especially for the plasmonic electrocatalysis of major fuel-forming and fuel cell reactions [40].…”

One Dimensional AuAg Nanostructures as Anodic Catalysts in the Ethylene Glycol Oxidation

“…Thus, if we could develop more tunable wet chemical methods that do not involve templating and are free of Pt and/or Pd, it would facilitate the design of new, more efficient and sustainable electrocatalysts. Nanostructures based on AuAg alloys in particular have not only very strong plasmonic characteristics, but also possess interesting electrocatalytic properties [41]. This was recently highlighted by Xu et al [42], who showed that the white light irradiation of AuAg nanobowls results in amplifying their performance for EGOR.…”