Hamans Ruben F, Kamarudheen Rifat, Baldi Andrea
Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER), De Zaale 20, 5612 AJ Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2020 Nov 29;10(12):2377. doi: 10.3390/nano10122377.
Plasmonic nanoparticles have recently emerged as a promising platform for photocatalysis thanks to their ability to efficiently harvest and convert light into highly energetic charge carriers and heat. The catalytic properties of metallic nanoparticles, however, are typically measured in ensemble experiments. These measurements, while providing statistically significant information, often mask the intrinsic heterogeneity of the catalyst particles and their individual dynamic behavior. For this reason, single particle approaches are now emerging as a powerful tool to unveil the structure-function relationship of plasmonic nanocatalysts. In this Perspective, we highlight two such techniques based on far-field optical microscopy: surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. We first discuss their working principles and then show how they are applied to the in-situ study of catalysis and photocatalysis on single plasmonic nanoparticles. To conclude, we provide our vision on how these techniques can be further applied to tackle current open questions in the field of plasmonic chemistry.
由于能够有效地捕获光并将其转化为高能电荷载流子和热量，等离子体纳米颗粒最近已成为一种很有前景的光催化平台。然而，金属纳米颗粒的催化性能通常是在整体实验中测量的。这些测量虽然提供了具有统计学意义的信息，但往往掩盖了催化剂颗粒的内在异质性及其个体动态行为。因此，单颗粒方法正成为揭示等离子体纳米催化剂结构-功能关系的有力工具。在这篇观点文章中，我们重点介绍了基于远场光学显微镜的两种此类技术：表面增强拉曼光谱和超分辨率荧光显微镜。我们首先讨论它们的工作原理，然后展示它们如何应用于单等离子体纳米颗粒上催化和光催化的原位研究。最后，我们对这些技术如何进一步应用于解决等离子体化学领域当前的开放性问题提出了展望。
