The effect of reaction conditions on the photodynamics of silver nano catalysts for CO2 reduction.
In this project you will investigate how the photodynamics of plasmonic nanoparticles (PNP) change under different chemical conditions (e.g. pH, salt concentration, the presence of CO2 in our reaction mixture). This work is part of a greater project with the goal to study the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 on silver nanoparticles.
At the PCS group we investigate the photocatalytic properties of PNP s with ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy (TA). TA is a pump-probe optical measurement technique and is used to measure the excited state of a material and follow the decay of the excited state back to the ground state. A PNP in the excited state contains a lot of energy which can be used to catalyze chemical reactions, either through energy transfer or photothermal heating of the PNP.
Figure 1: Schematic representation of transient absorption spectroscopy (left), Picture of our current setup (right).
Changes in the photodynamics of nanoparticles give us an idea of how electrons are behaving and whether they’re being used to drive chemical reactions. They also give us hints about the reaction mechanism.
What will you do?
In this project, you will work on sample preparation, including nanoparticle synthesis and deposition. Together, we will perform ultrafast spectroscopy measurements, and I will teach you how to operate the laser system. Finally, you will analyze the collected data and prepare a report.
Figure 2: Example of TA spectrum.
Contacts
In case you have any questions, feel free to contact Jorik Schaap (ME150) j.h.schaap@utwente.nl or Dr. Annemarie Huijser, Daily supervisor at j.m.huijser@utwente.nl.