Taking the Heat Off of Plasmonic Chemistry

Abstract

Several chemical reactions catalyzed by plasmonic nanoparticles show enhanced rates under visible-light-excitation of the localized surface plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles. But it has been argued that there is an associated photothermal effect that can complicate the analysis and/or interpretation of the nature of the role played by plasmon excitation. This Viewpoint discusses this dilemma and provides some best practices for accounting for photothermal contributions in plasmon-excitation-driven chemistry. A classification of plasmonic chemistry into plasmonic photocatalysis and plasmonic photosynthesis is also proposed. It is argued that photosynthetic reactions, which require a Gibb's free energy input, constitute an ultimate test of the non-thermal, photochemical action of plasmon excitation.

12 pages, no figures, Viewpoint

References in corpus (2)

• Thermal effects - an alternative mechanism for plasmonic-assisted photo-catalysis
• Phenomenological Arrhenius Analyses in Plasmon-Enhanced Catalysis

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Simple experimental procedures to distinguish photothermal from hot-carrier processes in plasmonics
• Recent developments in plasmon-assisted photocatalysis -- a personal perspective
• The role of heat generation and fluid flow in plasmon-enhanced reduction-oxidation reactions
• Distinguishing thermal from non-thermal ("hot") carries in illuminated molecular junctions