Journal Home > Volume 16 , Issue 1
Nano Research 2023, 16(1): 239-247 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4712-9
Research Article | Issue | Published: 12 August 2022

Hot spots engineering by dielectric support for enhanced photocatalytic redox reactions

Show Author's Information Yan Yu1,2,  Yujun Xie2,  Pengfei Zhang1,  Wei Zhang1,3,  Wenxing Wang1( ),  Shuyu Zhang2( ),  Qiongrong Ou2,  Wei Li1( )
Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Shanghai Key Lab of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Institute for Electric Light Sources, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Zhuhai Fudan Innovation Institute, Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, Zhuhai 519000, China
Keywords:
photocatalysis, TiO2, surface plasmon resonance, hot spots, urchin-like silica nanoparticles, core–shell structures
Topics:
Photocatalysis
Cite this article:
Yu Y, Xie Y, Zhang P, et al. Hot spots engineering by dielectric support for enhanced photocatalytic redox reactions. Nano Research, 2023, 16(1): 239-247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4712-9
Download citation
EndNote(RIS)
BibTeX

643

Views

43

Downloads

Citations

2

Crossref

2

WoS

1

Scopus

0

CSCD

Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Regulating the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of metallic nanostructures is of great interests for optical and catalytic applications, however, it is still a great challenge for tuning SPR features of small metallic nanoparticles (< 10 nm). In this work, we design a unique dielectric support—urchin-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles (U-SiO2) with ordered long spikes on its surface, which can well enhance the SPR properties of ~ 3 nm gold nanocrystals (AuNCs). The U-SiO2 not only realizes the uniform self-assembly of AuNCs, but also prevents their aggregation due to the unique confinement effect. The finite-difference time-domain simulations show that the AuNCs on U-SiO2 can generate plasmonic hot spots with highly enhanced electromagnetic field. Moreover, the hot electrons can be effectively and rapidly transferred through the interface junction to TiO2. Thus, a high visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity can be observed, which is 3.8 times higher than that of smooth photocatalysts. The concept of dielectric supports engineering provides a new strategy for tuning SPR of small metallic nanocrystals towards the development of advanced plasmon-based applications.


menu
Abstract
Full text
Outline
Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Hot spots engineering by dielectric support for enhanced photocatalytic redox reactions

Show Author's information Yan Yu1,2, Yujun Xie2, Pengfei Zhang1, Wei Zhang1,3, Wenxing Wang1( ), Shuyu Zhang2( ), Qiongrong Ou2, Wei Li1( )
Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Shanghai Key Lab of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Institute for Electric Light Sources, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Zhuhai Fudan Innovation Institute, Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, Zhuhai 519000, China

Abstract

Regulating the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of metallic nanostructures is of great interests for optical and catalytic applications, however, it is still a great challenge for tuning SPR features of small metallic nanoparticles (< 10 nm). In this work, we design a unique dielectric support—urchin-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles (U-SiO2) with ordered long spikes on its surface, which can well enhance the SPR properties of ~ 3 nm gold nanocrystals (AuNCs). The U-SiO2 not only realizes the uniform self-assembly of AuNCs, but also prevents their aggregation due to the unique confinement effect. The finite-difference time-domain simulations show that the AuNCs on U-SiO2 can generate plasmonic hot spots with highly enhanced electromagnetic field. Moreover, the hot electrons can be effectively and rapidly transferred through the interface junction to TiO2. Thus, a high visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity can be observed, which is 3.8 times higher than that of smooth photocatalysts. The concept of dielectric supports engineering provides a new strategy for tuning SPR of small metallic nanocrystals towards the development of advanced plasmon-based applications.

Keywords: photocatalysis, TiO2, surface plasmon resonance, hot spots, urchin-like silica nanoparticles, core–shell structures

References(50)

[1]

Liu, D.; Xue, C. Plasmonic coupling architectures for enhanced photocatalysis. Adv. Mater. 2021, 33, 2005738.
DOI Google Scholar
[2]

Liu, Y. S.; Deng, J. P.; Jin, Z. C.; Liu, T. X.; Zhou, J.; Luo, F.; Wang, G. F. A study of plasmon-driven catalytic 4-NBT to DMAB in the dry film by using spatial Raman mapping spectroscopy. Nano Res. 2022, 15, 6062–6066.
DOI Google Scholar
[3]

Hinman, S. S.; McKeating, K. S.; Cheng, Q. Surface plasmon resonance: Material and interface design for universal accessibility. Anal. Chem. 2018, 90, 19–39.
DOI Google Scholar
[4]

Yi, J.; You, E. M.; Ding, S. Y.; Tian, Z. Q. Unveiling the molecule-plasmon interactions in surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy. Natl. Sci. Rev. 2020, 7, 1228–1238.
DOI Google Scholar
[5]

Schuller, J. A.; Barnard, E. S.; Cai, W. S.; Jun, Y. C.; White, J. S.; Brongersma, M. L. Plasmonics for extreme light concentration and manipulation. Nat. Mater. 2010, 9, 193–204.
DOI Google Scholar
[6]

Zhan, C.; Liu, B. W.; Huang, Y. F.; Hu, S.; Ren, B.; Moskovits, M.; Tian, Z. Q. Disentangling charge carrier from photothermal effects in plasmonic metal nanostructures. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 2671.
DOI Google Scholar
[7]

Li, S. S.; Huang, H.; Shao, L.; Wang, J. F. How to utilize excited Plasmon energy efficiently. ACS Nano 2021, 15, 10759–10768.
DOI Google Scholar
[8]

Linic, S.; Christopher, P.; Ingram, D. B. Plasmonic-metal nanostructures for efficient conversion of solar to chemical energy. Nat. Mater. 2011, 10, 911–921.
DOI Google Scholar
[9]

Kaefer, K.; Krüger, K.; Schlapp, F.; Uzun, H.; Celiksoy, S.; Flietel, B.; Heimann, A.; Schroeder, T.; Kempski, O.; Sönnichsen, C. Implantable sensors based on gold nanoparticles for continuous long-term concentration monitoring in the body. Nano Lett. 2021, 21, 3325–3330.
DOI Google Scholar
[10]

Zhan, C.; Chen, X. J.; Yi, J.; Li, J. F.; Wu, D. Y.; Tian, Z. Q. From plasmon-enhanced molecular spectroscopy to plasmon-mediated chemical reactions. Nat. Rev. Chem. 2018, 2, 216–230.
DOI Google Scholar
[11]

Ding, S. Y.; You, E. M.; Tian, Z. Q.; Moskovits, M. Electromagnetic theories of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2017, 46, 4042–4076.
DOI Google Scholar
[12]

Zhang, C. P.; Chen, S.; Jiang, Z. L.; Shi, Z. Y.; Wang, J. L.; Du, L. T. Highly sensitive and reproducible SERS substrates based on ordered micropyramid array and silver nanoparticles. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 13, 29222–29229.
DOI Google Scholar
[13]

Lal, S.; Link, S.; Halas, N. J. Nano-optics from sensing to waveguiding. Nat. Photon. 2007, 1, 641–648.
DOI Google Scholar
[14]

Gao, X. X.; Zhang, J. J.; Luo, Y.; Ma, Q.; Bai, G. D.; Zhang, H. C.; Cui, T. J. Reconfigurable parametric amplifications of spoof surface plasmons. Adv. Sci. (Weinh. ) 2021, 8, 2100795.
DOI Google Scholar
[15]

Shi, K. Z.; Chen, Z. Y.; Xu, X. N.; Evans, J.; He, S. L. Optimized colossal near-field thermal radiation enabled by manipulating coupled Plasmon polariton geometry. Adv. Mater. 2021, 33, 2106097.
DOI Google Scholar
[16]

Wang, Z. Y.; Clark, J. K.; Ho, Y. L.; Volz, S.; Daiguji, H.; Delaunay, J. J. Ultranarrow and wavelength-tunable thermal emission in a hybrid metal-optical Tamm state structure. ACS Photon. 2020, 7, 1569–1576.
DOI Google Scholar
[17]

Pu, Y. C.; Wang, G. M.; Chang, K. D.; Ling, Y. C.; Lin, Y. K.; Fitzmorris, B. C.; Liu, C. M.; Lu, X. H.; Tong, Y. X.; Zhang, J. Z. et al. Au nanostructure-decorated TiO2 nanowires exhibiting photoactivity across entire UV–visible region for photoelectrochemical water splitting. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 3817–3823.
DOI Google Scholar
[18]

Ivanchenko, M.; Nooshnab, V.; Myers, A. F.; Large, N.; Evangelista, A. J.; Jing, H. Enhanced dual plasmonic photocatalysis through plasmonic coupling in eccentric noble metal-nonstoichiometric copper chalcogenide hetero-nanostructures. Nano Res. 2022, 15, 1579–1586.
DOI Google Scholar
[19]

Laska, M.; Krzemińska, Z.; Kluczyk-Korch, K.; Schaadt, D.; Popko, E.; Jacak, W. A.; Jacak, J. E. Metallization of solar cells, exciton channel of plasmon photovoltaic effect in perovskite cells. Nano Energy 2020, 75, 104751.
DOI Google Scholar
[20]

Bao, Z. Y.; Fu, N. Q.; Qin, Y. Q.; Lv, J.; Wang, Y.; He, J. J.; Hou, Y. D.; Jiao, C. Y.; Chen, D. C.; Wu, Y. C. et al. Broadband plasmonic enhancement of high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells by incorporating Au@Ag@SiO2 core–shell nanocuboids. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 538–545.
DOI Google Scholar
[21]

Atta, S.; Pennington, A. M.; Celik, F. E.; Fabris, L. TiO2 on gold nanostars enhances photocatalytic water reduction in the near-infrared regime. Chem 2018, 4, 2140–2153.
DOI Google Scholar
[22]

Huang, X. Q.; Li, Y. J.; Chen, Y.; Zhou, H. L.; Duan, X. F.; Huang, Y. Plasmonic and catalytic AuPd nanowheels for the efficient conversion of light into chemical energy. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 6063–6067.
DOI Google Scholar
[23]

Yu, G. Y.; Qian, J.; Zhang, P.; Zhang, B.; Zhang, W. X.; Yan, W. F.; Liu, G. Collective excitation of plasmon-coupled Au-nanochain boosts photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of semiconductor. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 4912.
DOI Google Scholar
[24]

Ma, J. M.; Liu, X. F.; Wang, R. W.; Zhang, F.; Tu, G. L. Plasmon-induced near-field and resonance energy transfer enhancement of photodegradation activity by Au wrapped CuS dual-chain. Nano Res. 2022, 15, 5671–5677.
DOI Google Scholar
[25]

Kumar, A.; Kumari, N.; Dubbu, S.; Kumar, S.; Kwon, T.; Koo, J. H.; Lim, J.; Kim, I.; Cho, Y. K.; Rho, J. et al. Nanocatalosomes as plasmonic bilayer shells with interlayer catalytic nanospaces for solar-light-induced reactions. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 9460–9469.
DOI Google Scholar
[26]

Burda, C.; Chen, X. B.; Narayanan, R.; El-Sayed M, A. Chemistry and properties of nanocrystals of different shapes. Chem. Rev. 2005, 105, 1025–1102.
DOI Google Scholar
[27]

Tsukamoto, D.; Shiraishi, Y.; Sugano, Y.; Ichikawa, S.; Tanaka, S.; Hirai, T. Gold nanoparticles located at the interface of anatase/rutile TiO2 particles as active plasmonic photocatalysts for aerobic oxidation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 6309–6315.
DOI Google Scholar
[28]

Weng, B.; Lu, K. Q.; Tang, Z. C.; Chen, H. M.; Xu, Y. J. Stabilizing ultrasmall Au clusters for enhanced photoredox catalysis. Nat. Commun. 2018, 9, 1543.
DOI Google Scholar
[29]

Zhang, N.; Han, C.; Xu, Y. J.; Foley IV, J. J.; Zhang, D. T.; Codrington, J.; Gray, S. K.; Sun, Y. G. Near-field dielectric scattering promotes optical absorption by platinum nanoparticles. Nat. Photon. 2016, 10, 473–482.
DOI Google Scholar
[30]

Naya, S. I.; Niwa, T.; Kume, T.; Tada, H. Visible-light-induced electron transport from small to large nanoparticles in bimodal gold nanoparticle-loaded titanium(IV) oxide. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7305–7309.
DOI Google Scholar
[31]

Qian, H. F.; Zhu, M. Z.; Wu, Z. K.; Jin, R. C. Quantum sized gold nanoclusters with atomic precision. Acc. Chem. Res. 2012, 45, 1470–1479.
DOI Google Scholar
[32]

Dutta, S. K.; Mehetor, S. K.; Pradhan, N. Metal semiconductor heterostructures for photocatalytic conversion of light energy. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6, 936–944.
DOI Google Scholar
[33]

Lee, J. H.; Shin, Y.; Lee, W.; Whang, K.; Kim, D.; Lee, L. P.; Choi, J. W.; Kang, T. General and programmable synthesis of hybrid liposome/metal nanoparticles. Sci. Adv. 2016, 2, 1601838.
DOI Google Scholar
[34]

Kelly, K. L.; Coronado, E.; Zhao, L. L.; Schatz, G. C. The optical properties of metal nanoparticles: The influence of size, shape, and dielectric environment. J. Phys. Chem. B 2003, 107, 668–677.
DOI Google Scholar
[35]

Han, C.; Li, S. H.; Tang, Z. R.; Xu, Y. J. Tunable plasmonic core–shell heterostructure design for broadband light driven catalysis. Chem. Sci. 2018, 9, 8914–8922.
DOI Google Scholar
[36]

Zhang, Y. L.; Zhang, J. Y.; Zhang, B. S.; Si, R.; Han, B.; Hong, F.; Niu, Y. M.; Sun, L.; Li, L.; Qiao, B. T. et al. Boosting the catalysis of gold by O2 activation at Au-SiO2 interface. Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 558.
DOI Google Scholar
[37]

Koo, W. T.; Kim, Y.; Savagatrup, S.; Yoon, B.; Jeon, I.; Choi, S. J.; Kim, I. D.; Swager, T. M. Porous ion exchange polymer matrix for ultrasmall Au nanoparticle-decorated carbon nanotube chemiresistors. Chem. Mater. 2019, 31, 5413–5420.
DOI Google Scholar
[38]

Wang, W. X.; Wang, P. Y.; Tang, X. T.; Elzatahry, A. A.; Wang, S. W.; Al-Dahyan, D.; Zhao, M. Y.; Yao, C.; Hung, C. T.; Zhu, X. H. et al. Facile synthesis of uniform virus-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles for enhanced cellular internalization. ACS Cent. Sci. 2017, 3, 839–846.
DOI Google Scholar
[39]

Duff, D. G.; Baiker, A.; Edwards, P. P. A new hydrosol of gold clusters. 1. Formation and particle size variation. Langmuir 1993, 9, 2301–2309.
DOI Google Scholar
[40]

Bahng, J. H.; Yeom, B.; Wang, Y. C.; Tung, S. O.; Hoff, J. D.; Kotov, N. Anomalous dispersions of “hedgehog” particles. Nature 2015, 517, 596–599.
DOI Google Scholar
[41]

Wang, S. T.; Liu, K. S.; Yao, X.; Jiang, L. Bioinspired surfaces with superwettability: New insight on theory, design, and applications. Chem. Rev. 2015, 115, 8230–8293.
DOI Google Scholar
[42]

Liu, W. D.; Liu, X. Y.; Xiang, S. Y.; Chen, Y. X.; Fang, L. P.; Yang, B. Functional interface based on silicon artificial chamfer nanocylinder arrays (CNCAs) with underwater superoleophobicity and anisotropic properties. Nano Res. 2016, 9, 3141–3151.
DOI Google Scholar
[43]

Yu, Y.; Xie, Y. J.; Zeng, P.; Zhang, D.; Liang, R. Q.; Wang, W. X.; Ou, Q. R.; Zhang, S. Y. Morphology-tailored gold nanoraspberries based on seed-mediated space-confined self-assembly. Nanomaterials (Basel) 2019, 9, 1202.
DOI Google Scholar
[44]

Liu, X.; Yang, Y.; Mao, L. G.; Li, Z. J.; Zhou, C. J.; Liu, X. H.; Zheng, S.; Hu, Y. X. SPR quantitative analysis of direct detection of atrazine traces on Au-nanoparticles: Nanoparticles size effect. Sensor. Actuat. B Chem. 2015, 218, 1–7.
DOI Google Scholar
[45]

Qian, K.; Sweeny, B. C.; Johnston-Peck, A. C.; Niu, W. X.; Graham, J. O.; DuChene, J. S.; Qiu, J. J.; Wang, Y. C.; Engelhard, M. H.; Su, D. et al. Surface plasmon-driven water reduction: Gold nanoparticle size matters. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 9842–9845.
DOI Google Scholar
[46]

Wu, S. Q.; Hu, H. Y.; Lin, Y.; Zhang, J. L.; Hu, Y. H. Visible light photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline over TiO2. Chem. Eng. J. 2020, 382, 122842.
DOI Google Scholar
[47]

Li, C. M.; Yu, S. Y.; Che, H. N.; Zhang, X. X.; Han, J.; Mao, Y. L.; Wang, Y.; Liu, C. B.; Dong, H. J. Fabrication of Z-scheme heterojunction by anchoring mesoporous γ-Fe2O3 nanospheres on g-C3N4 for degrading tetracycline hydrochloride in water. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2018, 6, 16437–16447.
DOI Google Scholar
[48]

Wang, X. N.; Jia, J. P.; Wang, Y. L. Combination of photocatalysis with hydrodynamic cavitation for degradation of tetracycline. Chem. Eng. J. 2017, 315, 274–282.
DOI Google Scholar
[49]

Ji, B.; Zhang, J. X.; Zhang, C.; Li, N.; Zhao, T. T.; Chen, F.; Hu, L. H.; Zhang, S. D.; Wang, Z. Y. Vertically aligned ZnO@ZnS nanorod chip with improved photocatalytic activity for antibiotics degradation. ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2018, 1, 793–799.
DOI Google Scholar
[50]

Wu, Z. J.; Guo, K.; Cao, S.; Yao, W. Q.; Piao, L. Y. Synergetic catalysis enhancement between H2O2 and TiO2 with single-electron-trapped oxygen vacancy. Nano Res. 2020, 13, 551–556.
DOI Google Scholar
File
12274_2022_4712_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (2.2 MB)
Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 01 June 2022
Revised: 26 June 2022
Accepted: 27 June 2022
Published: 12 August 2022
Issue date: January 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFE0201701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21975050, 21905052, 11975081, and 22105041), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 21ZR1408800), Key Basic Research Program of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 19JC1410700), the Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader (No. 21XD1420800), and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2021A1515010108).

Return