Describing temperature increases in plasmon-resonant nanoparticle systems

Abstract

Plasmon-resonant nanoparticles are being integrated into a variety of actuators, sensors and calo- rimeters due to their extraordinary optical capabilities. We show a continuum energy balance accurately describes thermal dynamics and equilibrium temperatures in plas- mon-resonant nanoparticle systems. Analysis of 18 data sets in which temperature increased B10.6 C yielded a mean value of R 2 ( 0.99. The largest single relative tem- perature error was 1.11%. A characteristic temperature was introduced into a linear driving force approximation for radiative heat transfer in the continuum energy description to simplify parameter estimation. The maximum percent error of the linearized description rose to 1.5% for the 18 sets. Comparing the two descriptions at simulated tem- perature increases up to 76.6 C gave maximum relative errors B7.16%. These results show for the first time that the energy balance and its linearized approximation are applicable to characterize dynamic and equilibrium tem- peratures for sensors, actuators and calorimeters containing nanoparticles in microfluidic and lab-on-chip systems over a broad range of heat-transfer lengths, power inputs and corresponding temperature increases.