Plasmonic catalysis

    In chemical industry controlling the activity and selectivity of a chemical conversion process is of immense importance. Traditionally, dissipation of thermal energy drives transformation of reactants, which may lead to formation of a variety of products; it remains a key challenge to design a process that dissociation and formation of specific chemical bonds can be triggered to form certain desirable products with very high selectivity, preferably at low temperatures. Introduction of light-sensitive solid materials into catalysis provides a powerful, alternate strategy for this purpose. In this light-driven process, positive and negative charges, which are generated through photoexcitation of coinage metal nanoparticles, stimulate the dynamics of chemical bonds in the reactants. The reaction selectivity can be boosted by manipulating the interplay between the photons, the light-sensitive solid materials, and the reactants. The objective of this research is to provide fundamental understanding of this light-driven bond dynamics at the molecular level.

    This work leverages our early research on dynamics of molecules and crystals by photoexcitation (Nano Lett. 2014) and electron injection (JACS 2018, JPCM 2012). In this DOE BES-funded project, we apply a similar approach and concept and plan to investigate a series of reactions including the reduction of nitrophenol, selective hydrogenation of phenylacetylene, and oxygen reduction reactions. A few works on these systems have been published (Nanoscale 2020, Nano Lett. 2018, Chem. Eur. J. 2018).