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Plasmonic photocatalysis presents a promising method for light-to-matter conversion. However, most current studies focused on understanding the relative importance of thermal and nonthermal effects while their synergistic effects remained less studied. Here, we propose an index, termed Overall Light Effectiveness (OLE), to capture the combined impact of these light effects on reactions. By systematically varying the thickness of catalyst layers, we isolated thermal and nonthermal contributions and optimized them to achieve maximum light enhancement. We demonstrate the approach using carbon dioxide hydrogenation reaction on titania-supported rhodium nanoparticles as a model reaction system. It shows a generalizable potential in designing catalyst systems with optimum combinations of heating and light illumination, especially with broadband light illumination such as sunlight, for achieving the most economical light-to-matter conversion in plasmonic catalysis.
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“A Lot’s in a Name”: Insights from Debates on Thermal and Nonthermal Effects in Plasmonic Catalysis
Plasmonic catalysis is uniquely positioned between photo/electrochemistry and thermal chemistry such that multiple factors may compete to dominate the reaction enhancement mechanism. The adoption of norms originating in both photochemistry and thermal chemistry has resulted in the use of language and methods of data analysis, which, in the context of plasmonic catalysis, may be implicitly contradictory. This article tracks several years of research towards understanding thermal and nonthermal effects in plasmonic catalysis and culminates with a discussion on how the choice of language and presentation of data can be tuned to avoid subtle yet significant contradictory implications.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1954838
- PAR ID:
- 10512308
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACS Applied Energy Materials
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 23
- ISSN:
- 2574-0962
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 11762 to 11772
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.3c01929
