Plasmonic harvesting of light energy for Suzuki coupling reactions.

The efficient use of solar energy has received wide interest due to increasing energy and environmental concerns. A potential means in chemistry is sunlight-driven catalytic reactions. We report here on the direct harvesting of visible-to-near-infrared light for chemical reactions by use of plasmonic Au-Pd nanostructures. The intimate integration of plasmonic Au nanorods with catalytic Pd nanoparticles through seeded growth enabled efficient light harvesting for catalytic reactions on the nanostructures. Upon plasmon excitation, catalytic reactions were induced and accelerated through both plasmonic photocatalysis and photothermal conversion. Under the illumination of an 809 nm laser at 1.68 W, the yield of the Suzuki coupling reaction was ~2 times that obtained when the reaction was thermally heated to the same temperature. Moreover, the yield was also ~2 times that obtained from Au-TiOx-Pd nanostructures under the same laser illumination, where a 25-nm-thick TiOx shell was introduced to prevent the photocatalysis process. This is a more direct comparison between the effect of joint plasmonic photocatalysis and photothermal conversion with that of sole photothermal conversion. The contribution of plasmonic photocatalysis became larger when the laser illumination was at the plasmon resonance wavelength. It increased when the power of the incident laser at the plasmon resonance was raised. Differently sized Au-Pd nanostructures were further designed and mixed together to make the mixture light-responsive over the visible to near-infrared region. In the presence of the mixture, the reactions were completed within 2 h under sunlight, while almost no reactions occurred in the dark.

[1]  D. Hughes,et al.  Mechanistic Studies of the Suzuki Cross-Coupling Reaction , 1994 .

[2]  Tian Ming,et al.  Heteroepitaxial growth of high-index-faceted palladium nanoshells and their catalytic performance. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[3]  M. Fernández-García,et al.  Advanced nanoarchitectures for solar photocatalytic applications. , 2012, Chemical reviews.

[4]  Lunxiang Yin,et al.  Carbon-carbon coupling reactions catalyzed by heterogeneous palladium catalysts. , 2007, Chemical reviews.

[5]  J. Scaiano,et al.  High-temperature organic reactions at room temperature using plasmon excitation: decomposition of dicumyl peroxide. , 2011, Organic letters.

[6]  M. El-Sayed,et al.  Plasmonic Field Effect on the Hexacyanoferrate (III)-Thiosulfate Electron Transfer Catalytic Reaction on Gold Nanoparticles: Electromagnetic or Thermal? , 2009 .

[7]  M. H. Yeung,et al.  Selective shortening of single-crystalline gold nanorods by mild oxidation. , 2006, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[8]  Xueping Gao,et al.  Visible-light-driven oxidation of organic contaminants in air with gold nanoparticle catalysts on oxide supports. , 2008, Angewandte Chemie.

[9]  P. Jain,et al.  Calculated absorption and scattering properties of gold nanoparticles of different size, shape, and composition: applications in biological imaging and biomedicine. , 2006, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[10]  Norio Miyaura,et al.  Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions of Organoboron Compounds , 1995 .

[11]  Naomi J. Halas,et al.  Photodetection with Active Optical Antennas , 2011, Science.

[12]  Younan Xia,et al.  Probing the photothermal effect of gold-based nanocages with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). , 2009, Angewandte Chemie.

[13]  S. Cronin,et al.  Plasmon resonant enhancement of carbon monoxide catalysis. , 2010, Nano letters.

[14]  Peter Nordlander,et al.  Light-induced release of DNA from gold nanoparticles: nanoshells and nanorods. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[15]  T. Moore,et al.  Mimicking photosynthetic solar energy transduction. , 2001, Accounts of chemical research.

[16]  Jiangtian Li,et al.  Photocatalytic activity enhanced by plasmonic resonant energy transfer from metal to semiconductor. , 2012, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[17]  Geniece L. Hallett-Tapley,et al.  Plasmon-Mediated Catalytic Oxidation of sec-Phenethyl and Benzyl Alcohols , 2011 .

[18]  N. Lewis,et al.  Powering the planet: Chemical challenges in solar energy utilization , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[19]  Nathan S. Lewis,et al.  Powering the Planet , 2007 .

[20]  Naomi J Halas,et al.  Nanoshell-enabled photothermal cancer therapy: impending clinical impact. , 2008, Accounts of chemical research.

[21]  Huaiyong Zhu,et al.  Reduction of nitroaromatic compounds on supported gold nanoparticles by visible and ultraviolet light. , 2010, Angewandte Chemie.

[22]  M. H. Yeung,et al.  Heteroepitaxial growth of core-shell and core-multishell nanocrystals composed of palladium and gold. , 2010, Small.

[23]  Jianfang Wang,et al.  Understanding the photothermal conversion efficiency of gold nanocrystals. , 2010, Small.

[24]  S. Cronin,et al.  Plasmon resonant enhancement of photocatalytic water splitting under visible illumination. , 2011, Nano letters.

[25]  X. Duan,et al.  Plasmonic enhancements of photocatalytic activity of Pt/n-Si/Ag photodiodes using Au/Ag core/shell nanorods. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[26]  C. Murphy,et al.  Anisotropic metal nanoparticles: Synthesis, assembly, and optical applications. , 2005, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[27]  Jianfang Wang,et al.  Plasmonic percolation: plasmon-manifested dielectric-to-metal transition. , 2012, ACS nano.

[28]  Xiaohua Huang,et al.  Noble metals on the nanoscale: optical and photothermal properties and some applications in imaging, sensing, biology, and medicine. , 2008, Accounts of chemical research.

[29]  Brahim Lounis,et al.  Photothermal Imaging of Nanometer-Sized Metal Particles Among Scatterers , 2002, Science.

[30]  Suljo Linic,et al.  Water splitting on composite plasmonic-metal/semiconductor photoelectrodes: evidence for selective plasmon-induced formation of charge carriers near the semiconductor surface. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[31]  Jeunghoon Lee,et al.  Tailoring the structure of nanopyramids for optimal heat generation. , 2009, Nano letters.

[32]  Ayusman Sen,et al.  Controlled synthesis of heterogeneous metal-titania nanostructures and their applications. , 2012, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[33]  Plasmon enhanced solar-to-fuel energy conversion. , 2011, Nano letters.

[34]  Jianfang Wang,et al.  Porous single-crystalline palladium nanoparticles with high catalytic activities. , 2012, Angewandte Chemie.

[35]  H. Kominami,et al.  Selective photocatalytic oxidation of aromatic alcohols to aldehydes in an aqueous suspension of gold nanoparticles supported on cerium(IV) oxide under irradiation of green light. , 2011, Chemical communications.

[36]  S. Linic,et al.  Plasmonic-metal nanostructures for efficient conversion of solar to chemical energy. , 2011, Nature materials.

[37]  Weihai Ni,et al.  Tailoring longitudinal surface plasmon wavelengths, scattering and absorption cross sections of gold nanorods. , 2008, ACS nano.

[38]  C Gough,et al.  Introduction to Solid State Physics (6th edn) , 1986 .

[39]  M. El-Sayed,et al.  Laser-Induced Shape Changes of Colloidal Gold Nanorods Using Femtosecond and Nanosecond Laser Pulses , 2000 .

[40]  Jian-Feng Li,et al.  Palladium-Coated Gold Nanoparticles with a Controlled Shell Thickness Used as Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrate , 2007 .

[41]  J. R. Adleman,et al.  Heterogenous catalysis mediated by plasmon heating. , 2009, Nano letters.

[42]  Wei Zhang,et al.  Thermooptical properties of gold nanoparticles embedded in ice: characterization of heat generation and melting. , 2006, Nano letters.

[43]  H. García,et al.  Influence of excitation wavelength (UV or visible light) on the photocatalytic activity of titania containing gold nanoparticles for the generation of hydrogen or oxygen from water. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[44]  R. Tscharner,et al.  Photovoltaic technology: the case for thin-film solar cells , 1999, Science.

[45]  Tian Ming,et al.  Plasmon-Controlled Fluorescence: Beyond the Intensity Enhancement , 2012 .

[46]  Yongping Luo,et al.  Plasmon‐Driven Selective Oxidation of Aromatic Alcohols to Aldehydes in Water with Recyclable Pt/TiO2 Nanocomposites , 2011 .

[47]  A. Kudo,et al.  Heterogeneous photocatalyst materials for water splitting. , 2009, Chemical Society reviews.

[48]  Hiroaki Tada,et al.  Self-assembled heterosupramolecular visible light photocatalyst consisting of gold nanoparticle-loaded titanium(IV) dioxide and surfactant. , 2010, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[49]  W. Lipscomb,et al.  The synchronous-transit method for determining reaction pathways and locating molecular transition states , 1977 .

[50]  Suljo Linic,et al.  Visible-light-enhanced catalytic oxidation reactions on plasmonic silver nanostructures. , 2011, Nature chemistry.

[51]  Ewa Kowalska,et al.  Visible-light-induced photocatalysis through surface plasmon excitation of gold on titania surfaces. , 2010, Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP.

[52]  C. Claver,et al.  Pd nanoparticles for C-C coupling reactions. , 2011, Chemical Society reviews.

[53]  Lei Zhang,et al.  Nanostructured Pt-alloy electrocatalysts for PEM fuel cell oxygen reduction reaction. , 2010, Chemical Society reviews.

[54]  A R Plummer,et al.  Introduction to Solid State Physics , 1967 .

[55]  Jianfang Wang,et al.  A Gold Nanocrystal/Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Composite for Plasmonic Heating on Microfluidic Chips , 2012, Advanced materials.

[56]  H. Freund,et al.  Photochemistry on metal nanoparticles. , 2006, Chemical reviews.

[57]  H. Monkhorst,et al.  SPECIAL POINTS FOR BRILLOUIN-ZONE INTEGRATIONS , 1976 .

[58]  James Barber,et al.  Comparing Photosynthetic and Photovoltaic Efficiencies and Recognizing the Potential for Improvement , 2011, Science.