Dr. George C. Schatz

Northwestern University-Department of Chemistry

February 26, 2021
12:00 Noon
HOST:  Dr. Chris Geddes

Plasmonic Photocatalysis

Silver and gold nanoparticles and their plasmonic properties have a history that dates to the Roman empire and before, as well as detailed work by Michael Faraday in the 1850s.  However these particles have been given new life (and applications) in the last 40 years through a number of advances in nanoscience, including the discovery of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in the 1970s, and the development of tailorable nanoparticle structures. This talk will focus on recent studies of plasmon-enhanced photocatalysis, including the use of SERS and the related tip-enhanced method TERS, in combination with electrochemistry, to characterize species involved in the reaction.  An emphasis in this talk will be on the use of theory to understand both the optical properties of plasmonic materials, and the photocatalytic reactions.