In the past decade, various rational designed plasmonic structures have demonstrated extraordinary functionalities from information, photothermal therapy to solar energy conversion. Recently, plasmon enhanced solar steam generation is attracting a lot of attention for its great potential in desalination, sterilization, etc. Here for the first time we demonstrate an asymmetric plasmonic structure (APS) formed by self-assembly of close packed silver nanoparticles into porous templates with dual functions, solar water purification and pollution detection. The dark porous side of the APS can enable efficient solar steam generation (with energy transfer efficiency ~ 80%) while the shiny metallic side can enable sensitive chemicals detection (with detection limit down to ~ 10^–12 M). Such impressive performance in solar thermal conversion and chemical sensing are stemmed from the broadband and efficient light absorption (solar absorptivity > 90%) as well as pronounced local field enhancement (maximal enhancement factor ~ 10⁹), respectively. As an example of functional integration, this dual functional APS can enable on-site pollution detection and purification of water: water sources contaminated with various kinds of common pollutants have been examined and purified. Both functions of detection and purification exhibit long time durable performance up to ~ 45 days, with < 20% decay in Raman intensity and < 10% decay in energy transfer efficiency, respectively.

在过去的十年中，从信息，光热疗法到太阳能转换，各种合理设计的等离激元结构已展示出非凡的功能。近来，等离子体激元增强的太阳能蒸汽产生因其在脱盐，灭菌等方面的巨大潜力而​​引起了广泛的关注。在这里，我们首次展示了通过将紧密堆积的银纳米粒子自组装为具有双重功能，太阳能水净化和污染检测的多孔模板而形成的不对称等离子体结构（APS）。APS的深色多孔面可以实现高效的太阳能蒸汽产生（能量传输效率约为80％），而金属光泽面可以实现灵敏的化学物质检测（检测极限低至〜10 ^–12M）。在太阳能热转换和化学传感方面如此出色的性能分别来自宽带和有效的光吸收（太阳能吸收率> 90％）以及显着的局部场增强（最大增强因子〜10 ⁹）。作为功​​能集成的一个示例，这种双重功能的APS可以实现现场污染检测和水净化：已经对各种常见污染物污染的水源进行了检查和净化。检测和纯化功能均具有长达〜45天的长时间耐久性能，拉曼强度衰减分别小于20％，能量传递效率衰减小于10％。