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Harvesting multiple electron–hole pairs generated through plasmonic excitation of Au nanoparticles

Nature Chemistry volume 10, pages 763–769 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Multi-electron redox reactions, although central to artificial photosynthesis, are kinetically sluggish. Amidst the search for synthetic catalysts for such processes, plasmonic nanoparticles have been found to catalyse multi-electron reduction of CO2 under visible light. This example motivates the need for a general, insight-driven framework for plasmonic catalysis of such multi-electron chemistry. Here, we elucidate the principles underlying the extraction of multiple redox equivalents from a plasmonic photocatalyst. We measure the kinetics of electron harvesting from a gold nanoparticle photocatalyst as a function of photon flux. Our measurements, supported by theoretical modelling, reveal a regime where two-electron transfer from the excited gold nanoparticle becomes prevalent. Multiple electron harvesting becomes possible under continuous-wave, visible-light excitation of moderate intensity due to strong interband transitions in gold and electron–hole separation accomplished using a hole scavenger. These insights will help expand the utility of plasmonic photocatalysis beyond CO2 reduction to other challenging multi-electron, multi-proton transformations such as N2 fixation.

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Fig. 1: Electron transfer from plasmonically excited gold NPs.
Fig. 2: Dependence of the electron transfer rate on the photon flux.
Fig. 3: Effect of the hole scavenger on the propensity of multi-electron transfer.
Fig. 4: Effect of the excitation wavelength on the propensity of multi-electron transfer.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding through an Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award. J.G.S. was supported by a CAREER award to P.K.J. from the National Science Foundation (rant NSF CHE-1455011). The work was carried out in part at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at UIUC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Youngsoo Kim, Jeremy G. Smith & Prashant K. Jain

  2. Department of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Prashant K. Jain

  3. Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Prashant K. Jain

  4. Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Prashant K. Jain

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Contributions

P.K.J. conceived the project and designed the experiments. Y.K. conducted the experiments. P.K.J. performed the theoretical modelling. Y.K. and P.K.J analysed the data. J.G.S. performed the structural characterization. Y.K. and P.K.J. co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Prashant K. Jain.

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Supplementary Figures 1–13, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, Supplementary Methods and Analysis

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Kim, Y., Smith, J.G. & Jain, P.K. Harvesting multiple electron–hole pairs generated through plasmonic excitation of Au nanoparticles. Nature Chem 10, 763–769 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-018-0054-3

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