Conjugated Polymer-Gold-Silver Hybrid Nanoparticles for Plasmonic Energy Focusing

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

The utilization of plasmonic energy in the form of heat, resonance energy, and/or hot carriers offers unique possibilities for various applications, like in catalytic and medical applications, due to their simple recyclability or administration. A common strategy to make this plasmonic energy available to the direct environment is to introduce conductive polymer coatings to transfer the energy and to increase the excitons lifetime. However, their practical use is limited due to the limited spectral match of gold with commonly used polymeric materials and semiconductors, the oxidation vulnerability of silver, and the short range of the required strong plasmonic interactions. To overcome these challenges, we developed the synthesis of conjugated polymer-gold-silver hybrid colloids that simultaneously enable silver as the central plasmonic material and prolong the internal relaxation by a heterojunction with a conductive polymer shell. The introduced thin gold layer focuses the plasmonic energy to the metal surface, enhancing and enabling the photocatalyzed polymerization of polypyrrole (PPy) while maintaining the plasmonic properties of silver. Hence, the introduced hybrid particles allow the foreseeable use of plasmonic energy in real-world applications via the strong plasmonics of silver and compatible conductive polymer shells as mediators.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2475-2481
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry C, Nanomaterials and interfaces
Volume126
Issue number5
Publication statusPublished - 31 Jan 2022
Peer-reviewedYes