Tuning the Surface Plasmon Resonance of Lanthanum Hexaboride to Absorb Solar Heat: A Review

Abstract

While traditional noble metal (Ag, Au, and Cu) nanoparticles are well known for their plasmonic properties, they typically only absorb in the ultraviolet and visible regions. The study of metal hexaborides, lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) in particular, expands the available absorbance range of these metals well into the near-infrared. As a result, LaB6 has become a material of interest for its energy and heat absorption properties, most notably to those trying to absorb solar heat. Given the growing popularity of LaB6, this review focuses on the advances made in the past decade with respect to controlling the plasmonic properties of LaB6 nanoparticles. This review discusses the fundamental structure of LaB6 and explains how decreasing the nanoparticle size changes the atomic vibrations on the surface and thus the plasmonic absorbance band. We explain how doping LaB6 nanoparticles with lanthanide metals (Y, Sm, and Eu) red-shifts the absorbance band and describe research focusing on the correlation between size dependent and morphological effects on the surface plasmon resonance. This work also describes successes that have been made in dispersing LaB6 nanoparticles for various optical applications, highlighting the most difficult challenges encountered in this field of study.

Unprecedented Theranostic LaB6 Nanocubes‐Mediated NIR‐IIb Photodynamic Therapy to Conquer Hypoxia‐Induced Chemoresistance

“…LaB 6 nanoparticles were reported in the literature to have localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption bands in the NIR region with the absorption maximum wavelength being particle size dependent. [ 32,33 ] The singlet O 2 was formed most probably via energy transfer from plasmonically excited triplet LaB 6 NCs to ground state molecular oxygen, similar to other nanomaterials. [ 31 ] Efficient energy transfer requires good similarity (or good electronic orbital wave function overlap) between triplet excited LSPR state of a nanomaterial and singlet excited state of molecular oxygen.…”

Plasmonics and its Applications

“…This special issue is composed of five review articles, five research articles, and two communications. The first part of the latter is devoted to the applications of plasmonics to physics and engineering [29,30,31,32,33]. Concerning the applications to physics, such as non-linear optics, Mattox et al demonstrated the control of plasmonic properties of LaB6 via Eu-doping on a spectral range from near-infrared to infrared [29].…”

“…Concerning the applications to physics, such as non-linear optics, Mattox et al demonstrated the control of plasmonic properties of LaB6 via Eu-doping on a spectral range from near-infrared to infrared [29]. Then, Mattox et al presented a review on the tuning of the plasmonic resonance of lanthanum hexaboride for a potential application to solar heat absorption [30]. Besides, Ogata et al investigated the effect of the plasmonic resonance of metallic nanostructures on the optical third harmonic generation (THG) enhancement of nickel nanostructure-covered microcubes [31].…”

Plasmonics and its Applications

“…This special issue is composed of five review articles, five research articles, and two communications. The first part of the latter is devoted to the applications of plasmonics to physics and engineering [29][30][31][32][33]. Concerning the applications to physics, such as non-linear optics, Mattox et al demonstrated the control of plasmonic properties of LaB 6 via Eu-doping on a spectral range from near-infrared to infrared [29].…”

“…Concerning the applications to physics, such as non-linear optics, Mattox et al demonstrated the control of plasmonic properties of LaB 6 via Eu-doping on a spectral range from near-infrared to infrared [29]. Then, Mattox et al presented a review on the tuning of the plasmonic resonance of lanthanum hexaboride for a potential application to solar heat absorption [30]. Besides, Ogata et al investigated the effect of the plasmonic resonance of metallic nanostructures on the optical third harmonic generation (THG) enhancement of nickel nanostructure-covered microcubes [31].…”