Surface plasmons have shown increasingly widespread applications in the last decade, especially in the field of solar energy conversion, recently leading to the use of metal nanoparticles as plasmonic photocatalysts. The latter offers great potential in overcoming traditional catalysts by providing localized heating and unconventional reaction pathways leading to improved product selectivity. A complete understanding of the underlying mechanisms remains, however, elusive due to the close resemblance between thermal and non-thermal effects, both leading to enhanced reaction rates. In this tutorial, we will introduce the basic physics of surface plasmons and the interaction mechanisms with surrounding molecules. We will then discuss the main strategies to evaluate photothermal effects and the main signatures of hot electron-driven processes. These aspects will be covered in specific examples of plasmonic photocatalysis for energy-relevant chemical reactions in the case of colloidal suspensions and at the solid/gas interphase in solid pellets, which involve different thermal constraints and thus different experimental strategies to reveal the effects of localized heating and hot electrons.

中文翻译：

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等离子体光催化中的热电子和热效应

表面等离子体激元在过去十年中显示出越来越广泛的应用，特别是在太阳能转换领域，最近导致使用金属纳米粒子作为等离子体光催化剂。后者通过提供局部加热和非常规反应途径，从而提高产品选择性，在克服传统催化剂方面具有巨大潜力。然而，由于热效应和非热效应之间的相似性，对潜在机制的完整理解仍然难以捉摸，两者都导致反应速率提高。在本教程中，我们将介绍表面等离子体的基本物理学以及与周围分子的相互作用机制。然后，我们将讨论评估光热效应的主要策略和热电子驱动过程的主要特征。