(Invited) Plasmon-Mediated Catalysis for Sustainable Energy

Abstract

Plasmonics have been recognized as a promising platform that may premise the performance enhancement of diverse functions. In the Polymer Nanohybrid Materials at Ewha Womans University, a comprehensive approach for the design and synthesis of multifunctional hybrid nanomaterials has been systematically performed to seek their potential applications as key elements in green nano- and bio-technology. Of the numerous methodologies to achieve these goals, we pay special attention to surface plasmons as a versatile platform, based on which target-oriented properties can be obtained by integrating plasmonic nanostructures into the elements of catalysts. The incorporation of plasmonic properties recently emerged as the advanced strategy for achieving high performance catalysis. The hot carriers and near-field enhancement induced by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) excitation are the key parameters that are responsible for the enhanced performances. Thus, the logical combination of the plasmonic nanostructures and electrocatalytic materials can be an effective strategy for further widening the application of the plasmonic effect. In this presentation we provides a concise overview of the fundamental principles of LSPR, the mechanism of plasmon-enhanced electrocatalysis, alternative design methods of plasmonic nanomaterials for various catalytic systems, and recent progress in plasmon-mediated electrocatalysis for the production of energy, including electrochemical conversion of different feedstock into fuels along with fuel cell catalysis.