Challenges and prospects of plasmonic metasurfaces for photothermal catalysis

Nanophotonics

Fornasiero Paolo¹  Mascaretti Luca²  Boltasseva Alexandra³  Naldoni Alberto⁴  Schirato Andrea⁵  Alabastri Alessandro⁶  Shalaev Vladimir M.⁶ 

[1] and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30, 16163Genoa, Italy;Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials, Palacký University Olomouc, Šlechtitelů 27, 77900Olomouc, Czech Republic;Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Energy, Environment and Transport Giacomo Ciamiciam, INSTM Trieste Research Unit and ICCOM-CNR Trieste Research Unit, University of Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 1, 34127Trieste, Italy;Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, 77005Houston, TX, USA;Department of Physics, Politecnico Di Milano, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32, 20133Milan, Italy;School of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA;

关键词: gas phase;    photocatalysis;    photothermal catalysis;    plasmonic metasurfaces;    solar fuels;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2022-0073

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Solar-thermal technologies for converting chemicals using thermochemistry require extreme light concentration. Exploiting plasmonic nanostructures can dramatically increase the reaction rates by providing more efficient solar-to-heat conversion by broadband light absorption. Moreover, hot-carrier and local field enhancement effects can alter the reaction pathways. Such discoveries have boosted the field of photothermal catalysis, which aims at driving industrially-relevant chemical reactions using solar illumination rather than conventional heat sources. Nevertheless, only large arrays of plasmonic nano-units on a substrate, i.e., plasmonic metasurfaces, allow a quasi-unitary and broadband solar light absorption within a limited thickness (hundreds of nanometers) for practical applications. Through moderate light concentration (∼10 Suns), metasurfaces reach the same temperatures as conventional thermochemical reactors, or plasmonic nanoparticle bed reactors reach under ∼100 Suns. Plasmonic metasurfaces, however, have been mostly neglected so far for applications in the field of photothermal catalysis. In this Perspective, we discuss the potentialities of plasmonic metasurfaces in this emerging area of research. We present numerical simulations and experimental case studies illustrating how broadband absorption can be achieved within a limited thickness of these nanostructured materials. The approach highlights the synergy among different enhancement effects related to the ordered array of plasmonic units and the efficient heat transfer promoting faster dynamics than thicker structures (such as powdered catalysts). We foresee that plasmonic metasurfaces can play an important role in developing modular-like structures for the conversion of chemical feedstock into fuels without requiring extreme light concentrations. Customized metasurface-based systems could lead to small-scale and low-cost decentralized reactors instead of large-scale, infrastructure-intensive power plants.

【 授权许可】

Unknown