Pinpointing photothermal contributions in photochemical reactions on plasmonic gold nanoparticles.

The dimerization of PNTP to DMAB could be directly driven by the laser heating effect. In plasmonic photocatalysis, the conversion rate and the reaction rate highly depend on GNP size. The reaction is not only driven by hot electron transfer but also by photothermal conversion to a large extent. This extraordinary evidence sheds new light on the puzzle of plasmonic photochemical reactions.