Nano Letters· 2012Q1
Hot Electrons Do the Impossible: Plasmon-Induced Dissociation of H<sub>2</sub> on Au
- 1,562citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2012year
Short summary
Visible light excites plasmons in gold nanoparticles, generating hot electrons that dissociate H2 molecules at room temperature via a Feshbach resonance mechanism.
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Key points
- Visible light induces H2 dissociation on gold nanoparticles at room temperature.
- The process is driven by hot electrons generated from plasmon decay.
- Hot electrons transfer into a Feshbach resonance of H2, leading to dissociation.
- HD formation was used to detect and quantify the dissociation process.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Heterogeneous catalysis is of paramount importance in chemistry and energy applications. Catalysts that couple light energy into chemical reactions in a directed, orbital-specific manner would greatly reduce the energy input requirements of chemical transformations, revolutionizing catalysis-driven chemistry. Here we report the room temperature dissociation of H(2) on gold nanoparticles using visible light. Surface plasmons excited in the Au nanoparticle decay into hot electrons with energies between the vacuum level and the work function of the metal. In this transient state, hot electrons can transfer into a Feshbach resonance of an H(2) molecule adsorbed on the Au nanoparticle surface, triggering dissociation. We probe this process by detecting the formation of HD molecules from the dissociations of H(2) and D(2) and investigate the effect of Au nanoparticle size and wavelength of incident light on the rate of HD formation. This work opens a new pathway for controlling chemical reactions on metallic catalysts.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Nano Letters, 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic MaterialsMaterials Science