Impact of bimetallic interface design on heat generation in plasmonic Au/Pd nanostructures studied by single-particle thermometry

Gargiulo, Julian; Herran, Matias; Violi, Ianina L.; Sousa-Castillo, Ana; Martinez, Luciana P.; Ezendam, Simone; Barella, Mariano; Giesler, Helene; Grzeschik, Roland; Schlücker, Sebastian; Maier, Stefan A.; Stefani, Fernando D.; Cortés, Emiliano (2023): Impact of bimetallic interface design on heat generation in plasmonic Au/Pd nanostructures studied by single-particle thermometry. Nature Communications, 14 (1). ISSN 2041-1723

Abstract

Localized surface plasmons are lossy and generate heat. However, accurate measurement of the temperature of metallic nanoparticles under illumination remains an open challenge, creating difficulties in the interpretation of results across plasmonic applications. Particularly, there is a quest for understanding the role of temperature in plasmon-assisted catalysis. Bimetallic nanoparticles combining plasmonic with catalytic metals are raising increasing interest in artificial photosynthesis and the production of solar fuels. Here, we perform single-particle thermometry measurements to investigate the link between morphology and light-to-heat conversion of colloidal Au/Pd nanoparticles with two different configurations: core–shell and core-satellite. It is observed that the inclusion of Pd as a shell strongly reduces the photothermal response in comparison to the bare cores, while the inclusion of Pd as satellites keeps photothermal properties almost unaffected. These results contribute to a better understanding of energy conversion processes in plasmon-assisted catalysis.

• Doc-Type: Article (LMU)
• Organisational unit (Faculties): 17 Physics
• DFG subject classification of scientific disciplines: Natural sciences
• DFG: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - 390776260
• DFG: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - 491502892