Plasmonic colloidosomes of black gold for solar energy harvesting and hotspots directed catalysis for CO₂ to fuel conversion

Abstract

Plasmonic black gold converts CO2 to methane using solar energy.

Single-step assembly of gold nanoparticles into plasmonic colloidosomes at the interface of oleic acid nanodroplets

“…8A). This is conrmed observing the size distribution of the spherical nanoparticles, which form the colloidosomes, going from an average of 4.0 nm in Au CSs (1) to 5.5 nm in Au CSs (10) (see ESI †) These morphology changes together with the important surface changes that take place when a carboxylic functional group (OA) is replaced with a thiol group (GSH), lead to an important optical response change with a red-shiing and broadening of the plasmon absorption band to 660 nm for Au CSs (10) (Fig. 8B).…”

“…4,5 These CSs display attractive properties such as the encapsulation of drugs or proteins for drug delivery or controlled release, with potential applications in imaging, biomedicine and biosensing. 6,7 Plasmonic gold colloidosomes (Au CSs) [8][9][10][11][12] have recently emerged as a promising class of assembled nanostructures since, in addition to the above mentioned properties, new ones related to their collective plasmonic nature, such as improved solar energy harvesting and photothermal heating, remarkable SERS activity and catalytic or photocatalytic applications have been recently reported.…”

“…TEM image of Au CSs (10) (A) and UV/Vis spectrum of Au CSs(1) and Au CSs(10) in ethanol after substitution of oleic acid by GSH (the absorption at ca. 950 nm corresponds to ethanol) (B).…”

Iron oxide (Fe3O4) magnetic nanoparticles supported on wrinkled fibrous nanosilica (WFNS) functionalized by biimidazole ionic liquid as an effective and reusable heterogeneous magnetic nanocatalyst for the efficient synthesis of N-sulfonylamidines

“…Recently publications exhibit that functionalization of the various silica nano materials with ionic liquids (ILs) can increase their catalytic activity because of specific futures of ILs such as eco-friendly, good stability, appropriate ionic conductivity, extensive liquid temperature range gap, and high thermal stability [ 12 , 13 ]. Until now, various type of ionic liquids which have been attached to the various supports, they have acted as a catalyst, reaction medium and as a stabilizer of numerous nanomaterials according to their ability in coordination of various metal atoms and ions based on electrostatic interaction [ 14 ].…”

Nanocatalosomes as Plasmonic Bilayer Shells with Interlayer Catalytic Nanospaces for Solar‐Light‐Induced Reactions

“…However, in the synthetic realm, it is immensely challenging to design and synthesize bio‐inspired next‐generation catalysts, which can have the intricate morphological features of natural systems at few‐nm scale and carry out various thermodynamically challenging and industrially useful chemical reactions, most preferably by harvesting sustainable natural solar light and thereby overcoming the fossil‐fuel‐based energy‐intensive thermal conditions . Metal‐based hollow nanostructures, such as shells, capsules, boxes, rattles, yolk‐shells, colloidosomes, and others, have drawn tremendous interest due to their unique optical, chemical and cargo‐loading properties mainly emerging from high surface area, low density and confined quantum mechanical effect . So far, in these nano or microsized nanostructures, interior (hollow)/exterior surfaces or intershell gaps can only be manipulated at several tens or hundreds nm‐scale with no control over randomly emerging few/sub‐nm cavities within the shell or intershell region which are critical for exploiting structure‐dependent physicochemical and catalytic properties .…”