Publication date: 28th August 2024
Hot carriers generated during plasmonic decay in metal nanostructures can improve the efficiency of photocatalytic processes, particularly when combined with metal oxides to drive photochemical reactions. Copper has already proven to be an efficient and selective electrocatalyst, being the only known metal capable of reducing carbon monoxide into significant amounts of hydrocarbons and alcohols over sustained periods at high reaction rates. In our project, we investigate copper-based plasmonic metamaterials as potential photocatalysts for the plasmon-driven catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide. First, we developed a fabrication method for an array of copper nanorods on a glass substrate, which benefits from high uniformity over a large surface area, low cost and scalability. This hyperbolic metamaterial offers several advantages, including a large highly reactive surface area and strong tunable optical properties in the visible range [3]. In this talk, we will also demonstrate the fabrication of a core-shell Cu/Cu₂O metamaterial by controllably growing copper oxide layers with nanometric thickness using anodization and its impact on the optical properties of these nanostructures. This process is monitored optically in real-time using in-situ visible light spectroscopy that infers the current state of the sample and the oxidation state of the copper.
The photo-electroreduction of CO₂ was performed under laser illumination using Cu and Cu₂O/Cu-based nanostructures as plasmonic photocathodes. We studied the effect of laser intensity on the photocurrent by varying the output power of the light source illuminated on the plasmonic photocatalyst. The presented plasmonic nanostructures show great potential by combining the well-known catalytic behaviour of copper oxides with the plasmonic enhancement of metallic nanostructures offering a promising approach towards highly efficient and potentially selective photo-electroreduction of CO₂.
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