CAS: Novel Plasmon-Assisted Reaction Pathways on Well-Defined TiO2 Single Microcrystals in Realistic Conditions Using in-Situ Spectroscopies

在化学系化学催化项目的支持下，贝勒大学张振荣教授和陆伟刚博士正在研究基于新型光学材料设计的新型催化剂，用于高效光反应。经济等离子体材料（TiN）将以精确设计的纳米结构形式在传统的氧化物催化剂上制备，以了解新的光反应途径。所开发的催化剂将推动等离子体增强催化剂研究领域的发展，并将显著提高催化效率。催化的新概念将为改进工业催化过程和新的光电应用开辟道路。该团队将为小型四年制大学的本科生提供先进成像和光子技术的研究培训活动，并在贝勒梅伯恩博物馆进行公众宣传，以促进韦科社区的光学和光谱学。这个资助的研究项目的重点是开发和理解新的光反应通道。张振荣和卢伟刚将利用经济等离子体催化剂材料（TiN）和新颖的设计来实现新的等离子体增强途径和可能的操作反应过程，以实现高效的光催化反应。研究团队将设计等离子体纳米结构周围的增强电场分布，以有效地将等离子体材料中的热电子注入TiO2中，在定义良好的微尺寸TiO2晶体上制造精心设计的等离子体纳米结构阵列，通过空间分辨研究建立高效的等离子体耦合。并通过在环境和液体中的原位微尺度和纳米尺度研究新的等离子体辅助光反应途径和机制。本项目独特地将新型等离子体材料的光学功能与定义明确的传统氧化物催化剂相结合，以开发新的光催化剂功能。通过在纳米空间分辨率上提高对反应机制的理解，所提出的工作有可能推进等离子体增强催化剂的研究领域。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Zhenrong Zhang and Dr. Weigang Lu of Baylor University are studying new enabling catalysts based on the novel design of optical materials for highly-efficient photoreactions. Economical plasmonic materials (TiN) will be fabricated in a precisely designed nanostructure form on traditional oxide catalysts to understand new photoreaction pathways. The developed catalysts will advance the field of plasmon-enhanced catalyst research with new catalytic materials and will significantly enhance catalytic efficiencies. The new concepts of catalysis will open the path for improved industrial catalytic processes and new optoelectronic applications. The team will engage in research training activities on advanced imaging and photonic technology for undergraduate students from small four-year schools and public outreach at Baylor’s Mayborn Museum to promote optics and spectroscopy in the Waco community. This funded research project is focused on developing and understanding new photoreaction channels. Zhenrong Zhang and Weigang Lu will utilize economical plasmonic catalyst materials (TiN) and novel designs to enable new plasmon-enhanced pathways and possible manipulation of the reaction processes for highly efficient photocatalytic reactions. The research team will design the distribution of the enhanced electric field surrounding the plasmonic nanostructure to efficiently inject hot electrons from the plasmonic material into the TiO2, fabricate well-designed plasmonic nanostructure arrays on well-defined micro-sized TiO2 crystals, establish efficient plasmon-coupling through spatially-resolved studies, and investigate novel plasmon-assisted photoreaction pathways and mechanisms through in situ microscale and nanoscale studies in ambient and in liquid. This project uniquely integrates the optical functionalities of novel plasmonic materials with well-defined traditional oxide catalysts to develop new photocatalyst functionalities. The proposed work has the potential to advance the field of plasmon-enhanced catalyst research by providing enhanced understanding of reaction mechanisms at nanometer spatial resolution.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.