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Nano Research 2021, 14(9): 3228-3233 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3427-7
Research Article | Issue | Published: 25 March 2021

Silica-coating-assisted nitridation of TiO2 nanoparticles and their photothermal property

Show Author's Information Qilin Wei1,  Danielle L. Kuhn2,  Zachary Zander2,  Brendan G. DeLacy2,  Hai-Lung Dai1( ),  Yugang Sun1( )
Department of Chemistry, Temple University, 1901 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA
U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Research & Technology Directorate, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010, USA
Keywords:
photothermal effect, titanium-oxide-nitride nanoparticles, mesoporous silica coating, nitridation reaction, structural transformation, plasmonic absorption
Topics:
Nanocrystals
Cite this article:
Wei Q, Kuhn DL, Zander Z, et al. Silica-coating-assisted nitridation of TiO2 nanoparticles and their photothermal property. Nano Research, 2021, 14(9): 3228-3233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3427-7
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Nanoparticles of refractory compounds represent a class of stable materials showing a great promise to support localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) in both visible and near infrared (NIR) spectral regions. It is still challenging to rationally tune the LSPR band because of the difficulty to control the density of charge carriers in individual refractory nanoparticles and maintain the dispersity of nanoparticles in the processes of synthesis and applications. In this work, controlled chemical transformation of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles encapsulated with mesoporous silica (SiO2) shells to titanium nitride (TiN) via nitridation reaction at elevated temperatures is developed to tune the density of free electrons in the resulting titanium-oxide-nitride (TiOxNy) nanoparticles. Such tunability enables a flexibility to support LSPR-based optical absorption in the synthesized TiOxNy@SiO2 core-shell nanoparticles across both the visible and NIR regions. The silica shells play a crucial role in preventing the sintering of TiOxNy nanoparticles in the nitridation reaction and maintaining the stability of TiOxNy nanoparticles in applications. The LSPR-based broadband absorption of light in the TiOxNy@SiO2 nanoparticles exhibits strong photothermal effect with photo-to-thermal conversion efficiency as high as ~ 76%.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Silica-coating-assisted nitridation of TiO2 nanoparticles and their photothermal property

Show Author's information Qilin Wei1, Danielle L. Kuhn2, Zachary Zander2, Brendan G. DeLacy2, Hai-Lung Dai1( ), Yugang Sun1( )
Department of Chemistry, Temple University, 1901 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA
U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Research & Technology Directorate, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010, USA

Abstract

Nanoparticles of refractory compounds represent a class of stable materials showing a great promise to support localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) in both visible and near infrared (NIR) spectral regions. It is still challenging to rationally tune the LSPR band because of the difficulty to control the density of charge carriers in individual refractory nanoparticles and maintain the dispersity of nanoparticles in the processes of synthesis and applications. In this work, controlled chemical transformation of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles encapsulated with mesoporous silica (SiO2) shells to titanium nitride (TiN) via nitridation reaction at elevated temperatures is developed to tune the density of free electrons in the resulting titanium-oxide-nitride (TiOxNy) nanoparticles. Such tunability enables a flexibility to support LSPR-based optical absorption in the synthesized TiOxNy@SiO2 core-shell nanoparticles across both the visible and NIR regions. The silica shells play a crucial role in preventing the sintering of TiOxNy nanoparticles in the nitridation reaction and maintaining the stability of TiOxNy nanoparticles in applications. The LSPR-based broadband absorption of light in the TiOxNy@SiO2 nanoparticles exhibits strong photothermal effect with photo-to-thermal conversion efficiency as high as ~ 76%.

Keywords: photothermal effect, titanium-oxide-nitride nanoparticles, mesoporous silica coating, nitridation reaction, structural transformation, plasmonic absorption

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 05 January 2021
Revised: 23 February 2021
Accepted: 26 February 2021
Published: 25 March 2021
Issue date: September 2021

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the department of the Army Basic Research Program through the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, U.S. Army Research Office (No. W911NF-15-2-0052). Partial characterizations were performed using the facilities hosted in the Temple Materials Institute (TMI), Temple University.

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