The fabrication of asymmetric monometallic nanocrystals with novel properties for plasmonics, nanophotonics and nanoelectronics. Asymmetric monometallic plasmonic nanocrystals are of both fundamental synthetic challenge and practical significance. In an example, a thiol-ligand mediated growth strategy that enables the synthesis of unprecedented Au Nanorod-Au Nanoparticle (AuNR-AuNP) dimers from pre-synthesized AuNR seeds. Using high-resolution electron microscopy and tomography, crystal structure and three-dimensional morphology of the dimer, as well as the growth pathway of the AuNP on the AuNR seed, was investigated for this example. The dimer exhibits an extraordinary broadband optical extinction spectrum spanning the UV, visible, and near infrared regions (300-1300 nm). This unexpected property makes the AuNR-AuNP dimer example useful for many nanophotonic applications. In two experiments, the dimer example was tested as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate and a solar light harvester for photothermal conversion, in comparison with the mixture of AuNR and AuNP. In the SERS experiment, the dimer example showed an enhancement factor about 10 times higher than that of the mixture, when the excitation wavelength (660 nm) was off the two surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bands of the mixture. In the photothermal conversion experiment under simulated sunlight illumination, the dimer example exhibited an energy conversion efficiency about 1.4 times as high as that of the mixture.
制备具有新颖特性的非对称单
金属纳米晶体,用于等离子体学、纳米光子学和纳米电子学。非对称单
金属质子纳米晶体既是基本的合成挑战,也具有重要的现实意义。例如,以
硫醇-
配体为介导的生长策略可以从预合成的 AuNR 种子中合成出前所未有的 Au 纳米棒-Au 纳米粒子(AuNR-AuNP)二聚体。利用高分辨率电子显微镜和层析成像技术,研究了二聚体的晶体结构和三维形态,以及 AuNR 种子上 AuNP 的生长路径。二聚体显示出非凡的宽带光学消光光谱,跨越紫外线、可见光和近红外区域(300-1300 纳米)。这一意想不到的特性使 AuNR-AuNP 二聚体范例在许多纳米光子应用中大显身手。在两个实验中,与 AuNR 和 AuNP 的混合物相比,二聚体实例被测试用作表面增强拉曼散射(
SERS)基底和光热转换太阳能光收集器。在
SERS 实验中,当激发波长(660 nm)偏离混合物的两个表面等离子体共振(
SPR)波段时,二聚物实例的增强因子约为混合物的 10 倍。在模拟阳光照射下进行的光热转换实验中,二聚体实例的能量转换效率约为混合物的 1.4 倍。