Plasmonic Photothermal Chemistry: Nanoscale and ultrafast heating with metal nanoparticles

Abstract

Metal nanoparticles strongly absorb light thanks to light-driven oscillations of their free electrons called plasmon resonances. The decay of these resonances can be used to drive chemical reactions via photothermal heating of the surrounding environment. In this talk, I will cover fundamental aspects of plasmonics and show two examples from our group’s work on how the spatial and temporal control of plasmonic photothermal effects can drive nanomaterial synthesis [1] and heterogeneous catalysis [2].

[1] R. Kamarudheen, G. Kumari & A. Baldi, Plasmon-driven synthesis of individual metal@semiconductor core@shell nanoparticles, Nature Communications 2020, 11:3957
[2] A. Baldi & S. H. C. Askes, Pulsed Photothermal Heterogeneous Catalysis, ACS Catalysis 2023, 13, 5, 3419–3432