Plasmonic electrocatalysis: investigating shape-dependent charge transfer processes in Cu2O-Au nanocrystals

• Grant number: 18/25567-7
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): March 31, 2019
• Effective date (End): November 29, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Principal researcher: Susana Inés Córdoba de Torresi
• Grantee: Anderson Gabriel Marques da Silva
• Supervisor abroad: Szunerits Sabine
• Home Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Université Lille 1 - Sciences et Technologies, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/12407-9 - Hybrid nanostructures of transition metal oxides and conducting polymers for various applications, BP.PD

Abstract

Plasmonically-enhanced or plasmonically-mediated transformations (SPR-enhanced or SPR-mediated catalysis) represent a new frontier in heterogeneous catalysis, in which visible light is employed as a sustainable energy input to drive and control chemical reactions. Although many papers have reported on the SPR-mediated catalytic activities of Ag, Au, Cu, and bimetallic nanoparticles, only a few studies have focused on electrocatalysis and the establishment of structureperformance relationships. To address these issues, this proposed research project will focus on the synthesis of truly controlled nanomaterials based on Cu2O-Au crystals displaying controlled shapes, for generating fundamental knowledge on the understanding of how excited carries generated during the plasmon excitation of gold nanoparticles may affect charge transfer to Cu2O crystals having different shapes (cubes, cuboctahedrons, and octahedrons). The target reactions will be the electrocatalytic oxidation of water and glucose, in which Cu2O has demonstrated to be a promising catalyst for both reactions. The understanding of these interactions between particular surface facets and gold nanoparticles remains lacking and crucial for clarifying the mechanisms behind the observed plasmonic catalytic performances. Our focus is to consolidate a collaboration between the two partners to systematically prepare Cu2O-Au crystals and then investigate their plasmonic electrocatalytic performances of as function of these parameters. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SAADA, TAMAZOUZT NAIT; PANG, LIUQING; KUMAR, KILAPARTHI SRAVAN; DOURADO, ANDRE H. B.; GERMANO, LUCAS D.; VICENTINI, EDUARDO D.; BATISTA, ANA P. L.; DE OLIVEIRA-FILHO, ANTONIO G. S.; DUMEIGNIL, FRANCK; PAUL, SEBASTIEN; WOJCIESZAK, ROBERT; MELINTE, SORIN; SANDU, GEORGIANA; PETRETTO, GUIDO; RIGNANESE, GIAN-MARCO; BRAGA, ADRIANO HENRIQUE; ROSADO, TAISSA F.; MEZIANE, DALILA; BOUKHERROUB, RABAH; CORDOBA DE TORRESI, I, SUSANA; DA SILVA, ANDERSON G. M.; SZUNERITS, SABINE. The importance of the shape of Cu2O nanocrystals on plasmon-enhanced oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media. Electrochimica Acta, v. 390, SEP 10 2021. Web of Science Citations: 0.

DA SILVA, ANDERSON G. M.; FERNANDES, CIBELE G.; HOOD, ZACHARY D.; PENG, RUI; WU, ZILI; DOURADO, ANDRE H. B.; PARREIRA, LUANNA S.; DE OLIVEIRA, DANIELA C.; CAMARGO, PEDRO H. C.; CORDOBA DE TORRESI, I, SUSANA. PdPt-TiO2 nanowires: correlating composition, electronic effects and O-vacancies with activities towards water splitting and oxygen reduction. APPLIED CATALYSIS B-ENVIRONMENTAL, v. 277, NOV 15 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

SAADA, TAMAZOUZT NAIT; DA SILVA, ANDERSON GABRIEL MARQUES; SUBRAMANIAN, PALANIAPPAN; PANG, LIUQING; ADNANE, NOUAL; DJAFARI-ROUHANI, BAHRAM; MISHYN, VLADYSLAV; MEZIANE, DALILA; MELINTE, SORIN; SANDU, GEORGIANA; DUMEIGNIL, FRANCK; PAUL, SEBASTIEN; WOJCIESZAK, ROBERT; BOUKHERROUB, RABAH; SZUNERITS, SABINE. Plasmon-enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen reduction in alkaline media on gold nanohole electrodes. JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A, v. 8, n. 20, p. 10395-10401, MAY 28 2020. Web of Science Citations: 2.