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Mathew MS, Krishnan G, Mathews AA, Sunil K, Mathew L, Antoine R, Thomas S. Recent Progress on Ligand-Protected Metal Nanoclusters in Photocatalysis. NANOMATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 13:1874. [PMID: 37368304 DOI: 10.3390/nano13121874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 06/07/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023]
Abstract
The reckless use of non-replenishable fuels by the growing population for energy and the resultant incessant emissions of hazardous gases and waste products into the atmosphere have insisted that scientists fabricate materials capable of managing these global threats at once. In recent studies, photocatalysis has been employed to focus on utilizing renewable solar energy to initiate chemical processes with the aid of semiconductors and highly selective catalysts. A wide range of nanoparticles has showcased promising photocatalytic properties. Metal nanoclusters (MNCs) with sizes below 2 nm, stabilized by ligands, show discrete energy levels and exhibit unique optoelectronic properties, which are vital to photocatalysis. In this review, we intend to compile information on the synthesis, true nature, and stability of the MNCs decorated with ligands and the varying photocatalytic efficiency of metal NCs concerning changes in the aforementioned domains. The review discusses the photocatalytic activity of atomically precise ligand-protected MNCs and their hybrids in the domain of energy conversion processes such as the photodegradation of dyes, the oxygen evolution reaction (ORR), the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR).
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Affiliation(s)
- Meegle S Mathew
- School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686560, India
- Research and Post Graduate Department of Chemistry, Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam 686666, India
| | - Greeshma Krishnan
- School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686560, India
| | - Amita Aanne Mathews
- School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686560, India
| | - Kevin Sunil
- School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686560, India
| | - Leo Mathew
- School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686560, India
| | - Rodolphe Antoine
- Institut Lumière Matière UMR 5306, Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, F-69100 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Sabu Thomas
- School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686560, India
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Ninakanti R, Dingenen F, Borah R, Peeters H, Verbruggen SW. Plasmonic Hybrid Nanostructures in Photocatalysis: Structures, Mechanisms, and Applications. Top Curr Chem (Cham) 2022; 380:40. [PMID: 35951165 DOI: 10.1007/s41061-022-00390-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
(Sun)Light is an abundantly available sustainable source of energy that has been used in catalyzing chemical reactions for several decades now. In particular, studies related to the interaction of light with plasmonic nanostructures have been receiving increased attention. These structures display the unique property of localized surface plasmon resonance, which converts light of a specific wavelength range into hot charge carriers, along with strong local electromagnetic fields, and/or heat, which may all enhance the reaction efficiency in their own way. These unique properties of plasmonic nanoparticles can be conveniently tuned by varying the metal type, size, shape, and dielectric environment, thus prompting a research focus on rationally designed plasmonic hybrid nanostructures. In this review, the term "hybrid" implies nanomaterials that consist of multiple plasmonic or non-plasmonic materials, forming complex configurations in the geometry and/or at the atomic level. We discuss the synthetic techniques and evolution of such hybrid plasmonic nanostructures giving rise to a wide variety of material and geometric configurations. Bimetallic alloys, which result in a new set of opto-physical parameters, are compared with core-shell configurations. For the latter, the use of metal, semiconductor, and polymer shells is reviewed. Also, more complex structures such as Janus and antenna reactor composites are discussed. This review further summarizes the studies exploiting plasmonic hybrids to elucidate the plasmonic-photocatalytic mechanism. Finally, we review the implementation of these plasmonic hybrids in different photocatalytic application domains such as H2 generation, CO2 reduction, water purification, air purification, and disinfection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajeshreddy Ninakanti
- Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL), Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
- NANOlab Center of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Fons Dingenen
- Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL), Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
- NANOlab Center of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Rituraj Borah
- Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL), Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
- NANOlab Center of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Hannelore Peeters
- Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL), Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
- NANOlab Center of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Sammy W Verbruggen
- Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL), Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium.
- NANOlab Center of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium.
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Mammen N, Malola S, Honkala K, Häkkinen H. Selective Acrolein Hydrogenation over Ligand-Protected Gold Clusters: A Venus Flytrap Mechanism. ACS Catal 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.1c04585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Nisha Mammen
- Department of Physics, Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Sami Malola
- Department of Physics, Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Karoliina Honkala
- Department of Chemistry, Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Hannu Häkkinen
- Department of Physics, Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
- Department of Chemistry, Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
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Jašik J, Fortunelli A, Vajda S. Exploring the materials space in the smallest particle size range: From heterogeneous catalysis to electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:12083-12115. [DOI: 10.1039/d1cp05677h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Ultrasmall clusters of subnanometer size can possess unique and even unexpected physical and chemical propensities which make them interesting in various fields of basic science and for potential applications, such...
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Ge R, Li XX, Zheng ST. Recent advances in polyoxometalate-templated high-nuclear silver clusters. Coord Chem Rev 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2021.213787] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
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Lim JYC, Yu Y, Jin G, Li K, Lu Y, Xie J, Tan YN. Establishing empirical design rules of nucleic acid templates for the synthesis of silver nanoclusters with tunable photoluminescence and functionalities towards targeted bioimaging applications. NANOSCALE ADVANCES 2020; 2:3921-3932. [PMID: 36132803 PMCID: PMC9417482 DOI: 10.1039/d0na00381f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2020] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) are an emerging class of ultrasmall (<2 nm) fluorophores with increasing popularity for bioimaging due to their facile synthesis and tunable emission color. However, design rules correlating different nucleotide sequences with the photoemission properties of AgNCs are still largely unknown, preventing the rational design of DNA templates to fine-tune the emission color, brightness and functionalities of AgNCs for any targeted applications. Herein, we report a systematic investigation to understand the empirical influences of the four basic DNA nucleotides on AgNC synthesis and their effects on photoluminescence properties. After establishing the importance of nucleotide-Ag+ binding and AgNC encapsulation within DNA tetraplex structures, we then determined the unique attributes of each individual nucleobase using different combinations of systematically varied DNA templates. Using the empirical design rules established herein, we were able to predict the photoluminescence behaviours of AgNCs templated by complex aptamer sequences with specific binding affinity to human cancer cells, and to deliberately control their emission color by rational modifications of the DNA template sequences for targeted bioimaging. Our empirical findings from this systematic experimentation can contribute towards the rational design of DNA sequences to customise the photoluminescence properties and biofunctionalities of DNA-protected AgNCs towards multicolour targeted bioimaging applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason Y C Lim
- Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Innovis 138634 Singapore
| | - Yong Yu
- Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Innovis 138634 Singapore
| | - Guorui Jin
- Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Innovis 138634 Singapore
| | - Kai Li
- Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Innovis 138634 Singapore
| | - Yi Lu
- Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana IL 61801 United States
| | - Jianping Xie
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore 10 Kent Ridge Crescent 119260 Singapore
| | - Yen Nee Tan
- Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) 2 Fusionopolis Way, #08-03, Innovis 138634 Singapore
- Faculty of Science, Agriculture & Engineering, Newcastle University Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK
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Yao D, Wang Y, Li P, Li H. Luminescent Ag + exchanged SOD zeolites with their potential applications in white LEDs. Dalton Trans 2020; 49:8179-8185. [PMID: 32515456 DOI: 10.1039/d0dt01425g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Ag+ exchanged zeolites (Ag-zeolites) combining the advantages of high stability of microporous zeolites with the unique optical properties of silver clusters are attractive as promising functional materials. In this work, we systematically studied the optical properties of Ag+ exchanged SOD zeolites, obtaining tuned emission from yellow to blue and for the first time acquired white-emitting Ag-zeolite phosphors at a mild temperature (<300 °C). This tunable emission color was found to be caused by lattice shrinkage and lattice expansion of the framework in SOD zeolites. The obtained white emitting phosphors show Commission Internationale de I'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of (0.33, 0.34) under 395 nm excitation. In addition, we fabricated warm white LEDs with these white emitting phosphors, which show CIE coordinates of (0.37, 0.34), with a lower correlated color temperature (CCT) of 4329 K and a higher color rendering index (CRI) of 91.
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Affiliation(s)
- Decui Yao
- National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Energy Conservation in Chemical Process Integration and Resources Utilization, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Chemical Process Safety, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Guangrong Dao 8, Hongqiao District, Tianjin 300130, P. R. China.
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Highly fluorescent few atoms silver nanoclusters with strong photocatalytic activity synthesized by ultrashort light pulses. Sci Rep 2020; 10:8217. [PMID: 32427832 PMCID: PMC7237420 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64773-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
While there are conventional chemical synthesis methods to generate metal nanoclusters (NCs), many of them are adversely affected by the unavoidable contamination of the nanoproduct solution, resulting in aggregation, background noise in analytical chemistry, toxicity, and deactivation of the catalyst. In this work, physical method of ultrafast laser ablation as a "green" synthesis approach together with mechanical centrifugation to obtain silver NCs, simplifying widely the chemical synthesis requirements, is proposed. Remarkably, compared with conventional methods for synthesizing Ag NCs, this new approach starts with a colloid that contains nanosized particles as well as smaller species, managing to obtain colloids with few atoms NCs by centrifugation. Those colloids were analyzed by fluorescence spectroscopy observing UV bands corresponding with HOMO-LUMO cluster transitions. Besides, independent HRTEM measurements were made confirming the presence of few atoms Ag NCs, as well as small NPs in different formation stages. Equally important, photocatalytic efficiency of the obtained NCs was studied through degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) when it was mixed with as-prepared or highly centrifuged colloid, showing an enhanced photocatalytic efficiency of 79% as compared to 57% for pure MB after 180 min of illumination. Consequently, this work contributes to establishing a simple approach to synthesize highly fluorescent and photocatalytic NCs.
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Effect of Chlorine-Containing VOCs on Silver Migration and Sintering in ZSM-5 Used in a TSA Process. Catalysts 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/catal9080686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Silver nanoparticles are currently one of the most studied nanostructured nanomaterials. Because nanoparticle size and dispersion act together in determining a material’s physical and chemical properties, there is a continuous quest to develop size-controlled synthesis methods. Nonetheless, the instability of the nanometer-sized particles, which is caused by their tendency to aggregate irreversibly into larger particles, remains a recurrent problem. The use of confining scaffolds, such as the regular system of cages in a crystalline zeolite-type material, is often reported in the literature as an efficient solution to overcome particle migration at the surface. Silver nanoparticles encapsulated in ZSM-5 (Ag@ZSM-5) represent a new generation of adsorbent for Xe enrichment from the atmosphere that is currently being developed at the pilot scale in a Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA) process. In this study, we have found that the presence of Cl-containing compounds in the air (VOCs) leads to a poisoning of the active silver phase by the formation of silver chloride. By a careful study of process parameters, we have found that most of the chlorine can be removed by heat treatment above 573 K so that the adsorption properties of silver are regenerated. That said, when applying 573 K temperature regeneration at the pilot scale, we observe a very minor but observable decay of xenon adsorption capacity that continues cycle after cycle. The mechanism of capacity decay is discussed in terms of (i) the residual presence of Cl at the surface of silver nanoparticles, (ii) the aggregation of silver nanoparticles into larger particles (sintering mechanism), and (iii) the acceleration of silver particle migration to the surface and sintering.
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