A plasmon-driven selective surface catalytic reaction revealed by surface-enhanced Raman scattering in an electrochemical environment
Journal article, 2015

Plasmonic catalytic reactions of molecules with single amine or nitro groups have been investigated in recent years. However, plasmonic catalysis of molecules with multiple amine and/or nitro groups is still unknown. In this paper, plasmon-driven catalytic reactions of 4,4'-dinitroazobenzene (DNAB), 4,4'-diaminoazobenzene (DAAB) and 4-nitro-4'-aminoazobenzene (NAAB) are investigated using electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. The results reveal that a plasmon-driven reduction reaction occurred for DNAB and NAAB in which the NO 2 group was reduced to NH 2, while the plasmon-driven oxidation reaction of NH 2 did not occur. This result demonstrates that plasmon-driven reduction reactions are much easier than plasmon-driven oxidization reactions in electrochemical environments. The molecular resonance may also play an important role in plasmon-driven catalytic reactions. These findings provide us with a deeper understanding of plasmon-driven catalytic reactions.

Author

L. Cui

Capital Normal University

Chinese Academy of Sciences

P. Wang

Capital Normal University

Yurui Fang

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Bionanophotonics

Y. Li

Northeast Forestry University

M. T. Sun

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Scientific Reports

2045-2322 (ISSN) 20452322 (eISSN)

Vol. 5 Art. no. 11920 - 11920

Subject Categories

Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics

DOI

10.1038/srep11920

More information

Latest update

10/2/2018