Light is powerful: photons carry energy at high speed, stimulate chemical reactions, and can be converted to electricity. However, light-to-chemical energy conversion is challenging, as light interacts only weakly with most molecules. Plasmonic nanoparticles of gold (Au) and silver (Ag) have found a myriad of applications as light harvesters, spanning the engineering, science, and bioscience fields. Meanwhile, several of the few metals with predicted plasmonic properties are amongst the most abundant elements on earth; for example, magnesium (Mg) has exciting optical properties across the UV, visible and IR range and better resource sustainability than Ag and Au to support mainstream applications.<br/>We recently demonstrated the colloidal synthesis of hexagonal Mg nanoplates which support multiple plasmonic modes by reducing di-<i>n</i>-butylmagnesium with lithium naphtalenide in THF. This opened the way to a series of synthetic and numerical studies toward gaining an understanding of growth, functionalization, and optical properties. In this work, we analyzed the plasmon-induced far-field (photon scattering and absorption) and near-field (local enhancement of the electric field) behaviour of new Mg-based heterostructures. These include multi-metallic nanoparticles, where a Mg core is decorated by small metal clusters; in the case of plasmonic metals (Ag, Au), we observed plasmonic coupling between the core and decorating structures. Furthermore, we developed approached to coat and stabilize Mg particles for potential applications in aqueous environments. Together, these results expand the field of functional, earth-abundant plasmonics.<br/>

Maneuvering the surface chemistry of plasmonic Mg nanoparticles

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.