Development of new nanothermometry platforms for plasmonic catalysis reactions

• Grant number: 19/21896-9
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Inorganic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Cesar de Sousa Filho
• Grantee: Tamires Maira Oliveira
• Home Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Temperature is one of the most important variables in the description of several physico-chemical systems, in particular those involving chemical reactions. The development of non-invasive self-calibrating thermometers is thus highly interesting to access new thermometric information in systems at micro- and nanoscales. In particular, metal nanoparticles with plasmon resonance effects have a wide range of applications, as, for instance, the the control and acceleration of molecular transformations in the field known as plasmonic catalysis. The accurate description of the functionality of such systems is then limited by the possibility of the determination of the local temperature in the vicinity of the metal nanoparticles, which consist a challenge to understanding mechanisms and improving plasmonic photocatalysts. Hence, materials combining thermometric proprieties with nanoparticles with plasmon resonance effects is highly attractive to describe chemical reaction occurring via plasmonic catalysis. In this sense, this project proposes the preparation of REVO4-AuNPs systems in which the rare earth vanadate phases (REVO4) show luminescent thermometric behavior and the metal nanoparticles (AuNPs) display plasmon resonance bands excitable at 488 or 808 nm. Besides preparation, structural, spectroscopic and thermometric characterization, the preliminary application of the synthesized systems in plasmonic catalysis model reactions will be performed, aiming at measuring temperature in the vicinity of the metal nanoparticle during the chemical reaction in suspension, as well as the evaluation of the effects of the support phase (REVO4). Therefore, we propose the preparation of new multifunctional platforms combining catalytic and luminescence properties to evaluate thermal effects in reactions occurring by plasmonic catalysis. (AU)