Black Au-Decorated TiO2 Produced via Laser Ablation in Liquid.
Stanislav O GurbatovEvgeny ModinVladislav PuzikovPavel TonkaevDmitriy StorozhenkoAleksandr A SergeevNeli MintchevaShigeru YamaguchiNatalie N TarasenkaAndrey ChuvilinSergey V MakarovSergei A KulinichAleksandr A KuchmizhakPublished in: ACS applied materials & interfaces (2021)
The rational combination of plasmonic and all-dielectric concepts within hybrid nanomaterials provides a promising route toward devices with ultimate performance and extended modalities. Spectral matching of plasmonic and Mie-type resonances for such nanostructures can only be achieved for their dissimilar characteristic sizes, thus making the resulting hybrid nanostructure geometry complex for practical realization and large-scale replication. Here, we produced amorphous TiO2 nanospheres decorated and doped with Au nanoclusters via single-step nanosecond-laser irradiation of commercially available TiO2 nanopowders dispersed in aqueous HAuCl4. Fabricated hybrids demonstrate remarkable light-absorbing properties (averaged value ≈96%) in the visible and near-IR spectral range mediated by bandgap reduction of the laser-processed amorphous TiO2 as well as plasmon resonances of the decorating Au nanoclusters. The findings are supported by optical spectroscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and electromagnetic modeling. Light-absorbing and plasmonic properties of the produced hybrids were implemented to demonstrate catalytically passive SERS biosensor for identification of analytes at trace concentrations and solar steam generator that permitted to increase water evaporation rate by 2.5 times compared with that of pure water under identical 1 sun irradiation conditions.
Keyphrases
- sensitive detection
- quantum dots
- visible light
- energy transfer
- single molecule
- electron microscopy
- high resolution
- high speed
- label free
- solid state
- optical coherence tomography
- ionic liquid
- gold nanoparticles
- room temperature
- high frequency
- radiation therapy
- heavy metals
- mass spectrometry
- computed tomography
- magnetic resonance