title: Photoinduced Electron Transfer Process Visualized on Single Silver Nanoparticles.
abstract: Understanding the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism is vital to improving the photoelectric conversion efficiency for solar energy materials and photosensitization systems. Herein, we visually demonstrate the PET process by real-time monitoring the photoinduced chemical transformation of p-aminothiophenol (p-ATP), an important SERS signal molecule, to 4,4'-dimercaptoazobenzene on single silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectroscopy coupled dark-field microscopy. The bidirectional LSPR scattering spectral shifts bathochromically at first and hypsochromically then, which are caused by the electron transfer delay of p-ATP, disclose the PET path from p-ATP to O2through AgNPs during the reaction, and enable us to digitalize the corresponding electron loss and gain on the surface of AgNP at different time periods. This visualized PET process could provide a simple and efficient approach to explore the nature of PET and help to interpret the SERS mechanism in terms of p-ATP.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University , Chongqing 400716, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University , Chongqing 400716, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Peng Fei
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University , Chongqing 400716, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University , Chongqing 400716, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University , Chongqing 400716, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hong Zhi
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University , Chongqing 400715, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shan Shan
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University , Chongqing 400715, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ming Xuan
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University , Chongqing 400716, P. R. China.|College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University , Chongqing 400715, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Cheng Zhi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1260-5934
authors.initials: CZ
authors.lastname: Huang
keywords: dark-field microscopy; localized surface plasmon resonance; p-aminothiophenol; photoinduced electron transfer; single silver nanoparticles