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Chaudhry I, Hu G, Ye H, Jensen L. Toward Modeling the Complexity of the Chemical Mechanism in SERS. ACS NANO 2024. [PMID: 39087679 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c07198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/02/2024]
Abstract
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) provides detailed information about the binding of molecules at interfaces and their interactions with the local environment due to the large enhancement of Raman scattering. This enhancement arises from a combination of the electromagnetic mechanism (EM) and chemical mechanism (CM). While it is commonly accepted that EM gives rise to most of the enhancement, large spectral changes originate from CM. To elucidate the rich information contained in SERS spectra about molecules at interfaces, a comprehensive understanding of the enhancement mechanisms is necessary. In this Perspective, we discuss the current understanding of the enhancement mechanisms and highlight their interplay in complex local environments. We will also discuss emerging areas where the development of computational and theoretical models is needed with specific attention given to how the CM contributes to the spectral changes. Future efforts in modeling should focus on overcoming the challenges presented in this review in order to capture the complexity of CM in SERS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Imran Chaudhry
- Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Benkovic Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
| | - Gaohe Hu
- Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Benkovic Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
| | - Hepeng Ye
- Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Benkovic Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
| | - Lasse Jensen
- Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Benkovic Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
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2
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Liu D, Li L, Jiang N. Nanoscale Chemical Probing of Metal-Supported Ultrathin Ferrous Oxide via Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. CHEMICAL & BIOMEDICAL IMAGING 2024; 2:345-351. [PMID: 38817320 PMCID: PMC11134605 DOI: 10.1021/cbmi.4c00015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2024] [Revised: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024]
Abstract
Metal-supported ultrathin ferrous oxide (FeO) has attracted immense interest in academia and industry due to its widespread applications in heterogeneous catalysis. However, chemical insight into the local structural characteristics of FeO, despite its critical importance in elucidating structure-property relationships, remains elusive. In this work, we report the nanoscale chemical probing of gold (Au)-supported ultrathin FeO via ultrahigh-vacuum tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (UHV-TERS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). For comparative analysis, single-crystal Au(111) and Au(100) substrates are used to tune the interfacial properties of FeO. Although STM images show distinctly different moiré superstructures on FeO nanoislands on Au(111) and Au(100), TERS demonstrates the same chemical nature of FeO by comparable vibrational features. In addition, combined TERS and STM measurements identify a unique wrinkled FeO structure on Au(100), which is correlated to the reassembly of the intrinsic Au(100) surface reconstruction due to FeO deposition. Beyond revealing the morphologies of ultrathin FeO on Au substrates, our study provides a thorough understanding of the local interfacial properties and interactions of FeO on Au, which could shed light on the rational design of metal-supported FeO catalysts. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the promising utility of combined TERS and STM in chemically probing the structural properties of metal-supported ultrathin oxides on the nanoscale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dairong Liu
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
| | - Linfei Li
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
| | - Nan Jiang
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
- Department
of Physics, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
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3
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Zhang J, Chen C, Zhang R, Wang X, Wei Y, Sun M, Liu Z, Ge R, Ma M, Tian J. Size-induced d band center upshift of copper for efficient nitrate reduction to ammonia. J Colloid Interface Sci 2024; 658:934-942. [PMID: 38157617 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.12.129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction (NO3RR) technique has emerged as a hotspot in NH3 production, for its practicability, and a series of advanced electrocatalysts with high activity and robust stability needed to be constructed in today's era. In this work, size-tunable Cu nanoparticles on porous nitrogen-doped hexagonal carbon nanorods (Cu@NHC) were reasonably designed and served for catalyzing NO3RR in neutral media. Especially, Cu30%@NHC demonstrated a remarkable electroactivity for NH3 production as it showed a suitable grain size with massive catalytic centers and favorable d band structure with faster *NO3--to-*NO2- catalytic dynamics. As expected, Cu30%@NHC (3628.28 µg h-1 mgcat.-1) had a much higher NH3 yield than those for Cu20%@NHC (1268.42 µg h-1 mgcat.-1) and Cu40%@NHC (725.03 µg h-1 mgcat.-1). And those collected NH3 products indeed derived from NO3RR process revealed by 15N isotope-labeling and systemic control tests. Moreover, Cu30%@NHC was also durable for NO3RR bulk electrolysis with minor loss in activity. This work offered an effective modifying tactics to boost NO3RR catalysis and could guide the design of other advanced electrocatalysts via size-induced surface engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jincheng Zhang
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
| | - Chaofan Chen
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
| | - Rui Zhang
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
| | - Xu Wang
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
| | - Yanjiao Wei
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
| | - Mengjie Sun
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
| | - Zhanning Liu
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
| | - Ruixiang Ge
- College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
| | - Min Ma
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China.
| | - Jian Tian
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China.
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4
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Doležal J, Sagwal A, de Campos Ferreira RC, Švec M. Single-Molecule Time-Resolved Spectroscopy in a Tunable STM Nanocavity. NANO LETTERS 2024; 24:1629-1634. [PMID: 38286028 PMCID: PMC10853955 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Revised: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
Spontaneous fluorescence rates of single-molecule emitters are typically on the order of nanoseconds. However, coupling them with plasmonic nanostructures can substantially increase their fluorescence yields. The confinement between a tip and sample in a scanning tunneling microscope creates a tunable nanocavity, an ideal platform for exploring the yields and excitation decay rates of single-molecule emitters, depending on their coupling strength to the nanocavity. With such a setup, we determine the excitation lifetimes from the direct time-resolved measurements of phthalocyanine fluorescence decays, decoupled from the metal substrates by ultrathin NaCl layers. We find that when the tip is approached to single molecules, their lifetimes are reduced to the picosecond range due to the effect of coupling with the tip-sample nanocavity. On the other hand, ensembles of the adsorbed molecules measured without the nanocavity manifest nanosecond-range lifetimes. This approach overcomes the drawbacks associated with the estimation of lifetimes for single molecules from their respective emission line widths.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiří Doležal
- Institute
of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences; Cukrovarnická 10/112, CZ16200 Praha 6, Czech Republic
| | - Amandeep Sagwal
- Institute
of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences; Cukrovarnická 10/112, CZ16200 Praha 6, Czech Republic
- Faculty
of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University; Ke Karlovu 3, CZ12116 Praha 2, Czech Republic
| | | | - Martin Švec
- Institute
of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences; Cukrovarnická 10/112, CZ16200 Praha 6, Czech Republic
- Institute
of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech
Academy of Sciences, Flemingovo náměstí 542/2, CZ16000 Praha 6, Czech Republic
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5
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Meng Q, Zhang J, Zhang Y, Chu W, Mao W, Zhang Y, Yang J, Luo Y, Dong Z, Hou JG. Local heating and Raman thermometry in a single molecule. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadl1015. [PMID: 38232173 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl1015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
Because of the nonequilibrium nature of thermal effects at the nanoscale, the characterization of local thermal effects within a single molecule is highly challenging. Here, we demonstrate a way to characterize the local thermal properties of a single fullerene (C60) molecule during current-induced heating processes through tip-enhanced anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy. Although the measured vibron populations are far from equilibrium with the environment, we can still define an "effective temperature (Teff)" statistically via a Bose-Einstein distribution, suggesting a local equilibrium within the molecule. With increased current heating, Teff is found to rise up to about 1150 K until the C60 cage is decomposed. Such a decomposition temperature is similar to that reported for ensemble C60 samples, thus justifying the validity of our methodology. Moreover, the possible reaction pathway and product can be identified because of the chemical sensitivity of Raman spectroscopy. Our findings provide a practical method for noninvasively detecting the local heating effect inside a single molecule under nonequilibrium conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiushi Meng
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
| | - Junxian Zhang
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Yao Zhang
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
- School of Physics and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Weizhe Chu
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Wenjie Mao
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Yang Zhang
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
- School of Physics and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Jinlong Yang
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
- School of Physics and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Yi Luo
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
- School of Physics and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Zhenchao Dong
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
- School of Physics and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - J G Hou
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
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Litman Y, Bonafé FP, Akkoush A, Appel H, Rossi M. First-Principles Simulations of Tip Enhanced Raman Scattering Reveal Active Role of Substrate on High-Resolution Images. J Phys Chem Lett 2023; 14:6850-6859. [PMID: 37487223 PMCID: PMC10405274 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c01216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2023] [Accepted: 07/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/26/2023]
Abstract
Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) has emerged as a powerful tool to obtain subnanometer spatial resolution fingerprints of atomic motion. Theoretical calculations that can simulate the Raman scattering process and provide an unambiguous interpretation of TERS images often rely on crude approximations of the local electric field. In this work, we present a novel and first-principles-based method to compute TERS images by combining Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) and Density Functional Perturbation Theory (DFPT) to calculate Raman cross sections with realistic local fields. We present TERS results on free-standing benzene and C60 molecules, and on the TCNE molecule adsorbed on Ag(100). We demonstrate that chemical effects on chemisorbed molecules, often ignored in TERS simulations of larger systems, dramatically change the TERS images. This observation calls for the inclusion of chemical effects for predictive theory-experiment comparisons and an understanding of molecular motion at the nanoscale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yair Litman
- Yusuf
Hamied Department of Chemistry, University
of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, United Kingdom
- MPI
for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Franco P. Bonafé
- MPI
for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Alaa Akkoush
- MPI
for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
- Fritz
Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Faradayweg 4−6, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Heiko Appel
- MPI
for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Mariana Rossi
- MPI
for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
- Fritz
Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Faradayweg 4−6, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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