Market Study for the production of ultrastable plasmonic Cu nanoparticles enabled by core-shell strategy

等离子体纳米粒子(NPs)具有独特的表面等离子体共振(SPR)，为解决能源和环境领域的许多紧迫问题提供了新的途径。只有金、银和铜三种金属可以在可见光和近红外范围内调谐SPR。与贵金属Au和Ag相比，铜基等离子体纳米结构的合成、表面等离子体共振性质及其应用受到的关注要少得多。这在很大程度上是由于铜的易氧化。然而，铜资源丰富，价格便宜得多，因此从长远来看，它比Au和Ag更具可持续性和吸引力。此外，除了与等离子体相关的应用，如生物成像、表面增强拉曼散射、传感、光伏和光催化外，铜纳米颗粒还在许多其他应用中具有很高的吸引力，如催化合成甲醇和印刷电子产品。为了促进铜纳米颗粒的实际应用，通过控制纳米颗粒的结构参数来获得更高的化学稳定性是至关重要的。 INRS的研究人员最近生产出了超稳定的等离子体铜纳米粒子，通过电流置换方法合成了一个薄的、坚固的金壳，将其从环境中分离出来。据我们所知，超薄而完整的晶状金壳即使在强氧化性硝酸溶液中也能有效地阻止铜的浸出，这是第一次证明了这种程度的化学稳定性。此外，这些核壳结构的纳米粒子在真实恶劣的环境中表现出高的光热效率和化学稳定性，用于太阳能转换。与之形成鲜明对比的是，仅含核的铜纳米颗粒即使在饱和的二氧化碳溶液中也可以很容易地完全溶解。这项工作将在很大程度上促进和扩大纳米铜的商业应用。这项I2I市场研究将帮助我们评估开发的铜纳米粒子生产技术的市场潜力。

With unique surface plasmon resonance (SPR), plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) are offering new ways to address many pressing issues in energy and environment sectors. Only three metals, Au, Ag and Cu, can have their SPR tuned in the visible and near infrared ranges. As compared to noble metals of Au and Ag, the synthesis, SPR properties and applications of Cu-based plasmonic nanostructures have received significantly less attention. It is largely due to the easy oxidation of Cu. Nevertheless, Cu is earth abundant and much cheaper, so in the long term it is more sustainable and attractive than its Au and Ag counterparts. Moreover, in addition to plasmon-related applications, such as bioimaging, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, sensing, photovoltaics and photocatalysis, Cu nanoparticles are also highly attractive for many other applications, such as the catalytic synthesis of methanol and printed electronics. To promote the real-world applications of Cu NPs, it is of paramount importance to obtain largely increased chemical stability by controlling NP structural parameters. Researchers at INRS have recently produced ultrastable plasmonic Cu NPs, which are isolated from their environments by a thin, robust Au shell synthesized via a galvanic replacement method. The ultrathin yet complete crystalline Au shell effectively inhibits the leaching of Cu even in strong oxidizing HNO3 solution, the first demonstration of this level of chemical stability, to the best of our knowledge. Furthermore, these core-shell NPs show high photothermal efficiency and chemical stability in real harsh environments for solar energy conversion. In stark contrast, the core-only Cu NPs can be easily and completely dissolved even by just saturated CO2 solution. This work may largely facilitate and expand the commercial applications of Cu NPs. This I2I market study will help us assess the market potential of the developed technology for Cu NPs production.