@article{Yu2023, 
author = {Yan Yu and Yujun Xie and Pengfei Zhang and Wei Zhang and Wenxing Wang and Shuyu Zhang and Qiongrong Ou and Wei Li},
title = {Hot spots engineering by dielectric support for enhanced photocatalytic redox reactions},
year = {2023},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {239-247},
keywords = {surface plasmon resonance, hot spots, urchin-like silica nanoparticles, photocatalysis, core–shell structures, TiO2},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-022-4712-9},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-022-4712-9},
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.}
}