Liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy of functionalised nanoparticles

液体喷射光电子能谱是研究变色树脂水溶液的一种有价值的光谱工具。HHF设计和制造了一种独特的液体喷射光电子能谱仪，它可以循环少量的溶液，用于研究定制的或昂贵的样品(最初是为蛋白质发色团和蛋白质设计的)。最近对有机变色树脂水溶液的测量表明，光电子能谱是探测溶剂化电子的一种特别灵敏的技术，比瞬时吸收光谱更敏感。该项目将利用这一令人兴奋的能力来测量功能化的金和二氧化钛纳米颗粒的电子结构，以及更重要的是，测量等离子体诱导热电子形成的时间尺度。提高我们对这些过程的详细了解对于设计更高效的太阳能光伏转换和基于等离子体能量转换的光催化器件至关重要。

Liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy is emerging as a valuable spectroscopic tool for studying chromophoresin aqueous solution. HHF has designed and built a unique liquid-jet photoelectron spectrometerthat recirculates small volumes of solution for studying bespoke or expensive samples (originallydesigned for protein chromophores and proteins). Recent measurements of organic chromophoresin aqueous solution have shown that photoelectron spectroscopy is a particularly sensitivetechnique for probing solvated electrons, more so than transient absorption spectroscopy. Thisproject will exploit this exciting capability to measure the electronic structure of functionalised goldand titanium dioxide nanoparticles and, importantly, the timescales for formation of plasmon-inducedhot-electrons. Improving our detailed understanding of these processes is crucially important for thedesign of more efficient conversion of solar energy in photovoltaic and photocatalytic devices basedon plasmonic energy conversion.