Department of Physics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6315, USA.
J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Sep 12;134(36):15033-41. doi: 10.1021/ja305603t. Epub 2012 Aug 27.
Plasmonic metal nanostructures have been incorporated into semiconductors to enhance the solar-light harvesting and the energy-conversion efficiency. So far the mechanism of energy transfer from the plasmonic metal to semiconductors remains unclear. Herein the underlying plasmonic energy-transfer mechanism is unambiguously determined in Au@SiO(2)@Cu(2)O sandwich nanostructures by transient-absorption and photocatalysis action spectrum measurement. The gold core converts the energy of incident photons into localized surface plasmon resonance oscillations and transfers the plasmonic energy to the Cu(2)O semiconductor shell via resonant energy transfer (RET). RET generates electron-hole pairs in the semiconductor by the dipole-dipole interaction between the plasmonic metal (donor) and semiconductor (acceptor), which greatly enhances the visible-light photocatalytic activity as compared to the semiconductor alone. RET from a plasmonic metal to a semiconductor is a viable and efficient mechanism that can be used to guide the design of photocatalysts, photovoltaics, and other optoelectronic devices.
等离子体金属纳米结构已被引入半导体中，以增强太阳光的捕获和能量转换效率。到目前为止，等离子体金属向半导体的能量转移机制仍不清楚。本文通过瞬态吸收和光催化作用光谱测量，明确了 Au@SiO(2)@Cu(2)O 夹层纳米结构中潜在的等离子体能量转移机制。金核将入射光子的能量转化为局域表面等离子体共振振荡，并通过共振能量转移（RET）将等离子体能量传递给 Cu(2)O 半导体壳。通过等离子体金属（供体）和半导体（受体）之间的偶极-偶极相互作用，RET 在半导体中产生电子-空穴对，与半导体本身相比，大大增强了可见光光催化活性。从等离子体金属到半导体的 RET 是一种可行且有效的机制，可用于指导光催化剂、光伏和其他光电设备的设计。
