Localized surface plasmon mediated photochemistry and charge transfer in noble metal nanoparticles

This thesis addresses the fundamental physical and chemical processes of localized surface plasmon mediated photochemistry and charge transfer in noble metal nanoparticles.;The first chapter introduces the theory and application of surface plasmons. It includes a discussion of propagating and localized surface plasmons, plasmon decay dynamics, factors governing plasmon excitation of metal nanoparticles, near-field enhanced photochemistry and plasmon mediated charge transfer.;The second chapter presents a photovoltage mechanism for room light conversion of citrate stabilized silver nanocrystal seeds to large nanoprisms. The process relies on the excitation of silver surface plasmons and requires citrate and oxygen. The transformation rate is first-order in seed concentration. The mechanism involves oxidative etching of seeds and subsequent photoreduction of aqueous silver ions preferentially onto silver prisms that have a cathodic photovoltage resulting from plasmon hot hole citrate photo- oxidation. This idea also explains several previously reported experiments including single and dual wavelength irradiation and the core/shell synthesis of silver layers on gold seeds.;The third chapter explores the photo-driven growth of citrate stabilized silver nanoparticles. Under plasmon excitation, particles that absorb/scatter light weakly reduce dioxygen and lose silver ions, whereas particles with resonant plasmons build up a high photovoltage due to citrate photo-oxidation and reduce silver ions. Overall, growth is favored for on-resonant particles. Compared to the borohydride reduction method, more monodisperse, round 10-20 nm diameter silver nanoparticles are obtained by plasmon mediated approaches. Adding a trace amount of potassium chloride can speed up the growth and inhibit the formation of Ag aggregates.;The fourth chapter investigates the plasmon induced photochemical charge separation in gold nanoparticles on a transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. Photocurrent and photovoltage are directly measured under potentiostatic control in air. It is proposed that gold plasmon excitation causes hot electrons to inject into the ITO conduction band, while hot holes are scavenged by citrate and other solution redox species. A resonant increase in the photocurrent generated at more oxidizing potentials is observed.