Issue 11, 2023

Continuous nucleation of metallic nanoparticles via photocatalytic reduction

Abstract

Whether in organic synthesis or solar energy conversion, light can be a powerful reagent in chemical reactions and introduce new opportunities for synthetic control including duration, intensity, interval, and energy of irradiation. Here, we report the use of a molecular photosensitizer as a reducing agent in metallic nanoparticle syntheses. Using this approach, we report three key findings. (1) Nanoparticles produced by photocatalytic reduction form via a continuous nucleation mechanism, as opposed to burst and burst-like nucleation processes typically observed in metal nanoparticle syntheses. (2) Because nucleation is continuous, as long as the solution is irradiated (and there remains excess reagents in solution), nanoparticle nucleation can be turned on and off by controlling the timing and duration of irradiation, with no observable particle growth. (3) This synthetic method extends to the formation of bimetallic nanoparticles, which we show also form via a continuous nucleation pathway, and follow predicted patterns of metal incorporation as a function of the magnitude of the difference between the reduction potentials of the two metals. Taken together, these results establish a versatile synthetic method for the formation of multimetallic nanoparticles using visible light.

Graphical abstract: Continuous nucleation of metallic nanoparticles via photocatalytic reduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
20 Dec 2022
Accepted
07 Feb 2023
First published
15 Feb 2023
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 2860-2865

Continuous nucleation of metallic nanoparticles via photocatalytic reduction

Z. C. Simon, A. M. N. Paterno, K. M. McHugh, P. J. Moncure, R. Sen, S. T. Patton, E. M. Lopato, S. Talledo, S. Bernhard and J. E. Millstone, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 2860 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC06980F

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