Hot carriers generated by plasmonic excitations have recently opened up new avenues in photocatalysis. The transfer of these energetic carriers to adjacent molecules can promote chemical transformations that are important for hydrogen generation by water splitting, CO₂ reduction and degradation of organic pollutants. Here, we have developed and optimised a plasmonic hot-carrier catalytic system based on silica nanoparticles decorated with plasmonic gold nanoparticles as a source of hot carriers, equipped with platinum nanoclusters as co-catalyst for the enhancement of hot-carrier extraction. The latter plays a triple role by providing: a surface favourable for molecular adsorption; hot-electron generation near the nanoclusters due to field enhancement effects and electron momentum relaxation facilitating the electron transfer across the metal surface, exactly where molecules are adsorbed. The combination of plasmonic and catalytic metals in nano-heterostructured devices provides a new platform for photocatalytic processes and is of significant interest for future solar-based clean technologies.

中文翻译：

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基于等离子体衍生热载体的双金属光催化剂的合理设计

等离子体激发产生的热载流子最近开辟了光催化的新途径。这些高能载体向相邻分子的转移可以促进化学转化，这对于通过水分解产生氢气很重要，CO ₂减少和降解有机污染物。在这里，我们开发并优化了一种等离子体热载体催化系统，该系统基于以等离子体金纳米粒子装饰的二氧化硅纳米粒子作为热载体的来源，并配备铂纳米团簇作为助催化剂，以增强热载体的提取。后者通过提供以下三重作用： 有利于分子吸附的表面；由于场增强效应和电子动量弛豫，在纳米团簇附近产生热电子，促进了电子在金属表面的转移，这正是分子被吸附的地方。等离激元和催化金属在纳米异质结构器件中的结合为光催化过程提供了一个新平台，对未来基于太阳能的清洁技术具有重要意义。