The generation of renewable fuels by artificial photosynthesis may hold the key to global energy sustainability and has been a major area of recent research. Three important characteristics of working electrodes for an artificial photosynthetic system are strong light absorption, efficient charge transport, and catalysis for fuel formation. To tackle the first two of these, we employ surface plasmon resonance using metallic core-shell nanostructures to concentrate light into thin nanostructured working electrodes. Our initial proof of concept uses hierarchical multi-shelled metal nanoparticles, and introduces the concept of working electrodes incorporating larger core-shell metallic aggregates. These materials possess broadband surface plasmon resonance throughout the visible light region of the solar spectrum, enabling plasmonic light concentration over a wide frequency range. Our current studies using this material show significant enhancement of light absorption in dye-sensitized solar cells, and our future studies incorporate water oxidation catalysts to use this plasmonic architecture in an artificial photosynthetic scheme as well.

Metallic core-shell nanostructures for photoelectrochemical cells

248th National Meeting (2014)

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