title: Light-concentrating plasmonic Au superstructures with significantly visible-light-enhanced catalytic performance.
abstract: Noble metals are well-known for their surface plasmon resonance effect that enables strong light absorption typically in the visible regions for gold and silver. However, unlike semiconductors, noble metals are commonly considered incapable of catalyzing reactions via photogenerated electron-hole pairs due to their continuous energy band structures. So far, photonically activated catalytic system based on pure noble metal nanostructures has seldom been reported. Here, we report the development of three different novel plasmonic Au superstructures comprised of Au nanoparticles, multiple-twinned nanoparticles and nanoworms assembling on the surfaces of SiO2 nanospheres respectively via a well-designed synthetic strategy. It is found that these novel Au superstructures show enhanced broadband visible-light absorption due to the plasmon resonance coupling within the superstructures, and thus can effectively focus the energy of photon fluxes to generate much more excited hot electrons and holes for promoting catalytic reactions. Accordingly, these Au superstructures exhibit significantly visible-light-enhanced catalytic efficiency (up to ∼264% enhancement) for the commercial reaction of p-nitrophenol reduction.
authors.affiliation: †Department of Chemistry, Tongji University, Siping Road 1239, Shanghai 200092, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jinhu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: †Department of Chemistry, Tongji University, Siping Road 1239, Shanghai 200092, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: †Department of Chemistry, Tongji University, Siping Road 1239, Shanghai 200092, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lianhai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zu
authors.affiliation: §Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lianming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: †Department of Chemistry, Tongji University, Siping Road 1239, Shanghai 200092, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guanglei
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: ∥Materials Science and Engineering Program, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, United States.
authors.forename: Donglu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shi
keywords: Au plasmonic superstructures; light concentration; noble metal; visible-light-enhanced catalytic reactions