Optoelectronic effects differentiating absorption of right and left circularly polarized photons in thin films of chiral materials are typically prohibitively small for their direct photocurrent observation. Chiral metasurfaces increase the electronic sensitivity to circular polarization, but their out-of-plane architecture entails manufacturing and performance trade-offs. Here, we show that nanoporous thin films of chiral nanoparticles enable high sensitivity to circular polarization due to light-induced polarization-dependent ion accumulation at nanoparticle interfaces. Self-assembled multilayers of gold nanoparticles modified with l-phenylalanine generate a photocurrent under right-handed circularly polarized light as high as 2.41 times higher than under left-handed circularly polarized light. The strong plasmonic coupling between the multiple nanoparticles producing planar chiroplasmonic modes facilitates the ejection of electrons, whose entrapment at the membrane-electrolyte interface is promoted by a thick layer of enantiopure phenylalanine. Demonstrated detection of light ellipticity with equal sensitivity at all incident angles mimics phenomenological aspects of polarization vision in marine animals. The simplicity of self-assembly and sensitivity of polarization detection found in optoionic membranes opens the door to a family of miniaturized fluidic devices for chiral photonics.
[a, b] (Photo)electrochemical processes are involved in many fields of science and technology. The use of spectroscopic techniques coupled to (photo)electrochemistry, are mandatory to get information about interfacial processes on scale ranges from millimeters to the nanoscale. The development of spectroelectrochemical cells (SECs) contributes to the progress of the field of (photo)electrochemistry and their impact in science and technology. Therefore, in this work, we describe in detail the development of a versatile SEC that can be used for conventional electrochemical experiments and several in situ techniques just by changing its window. We performed electrochemical and computational experiments to analyze the response of our SEC as a function of the working electrode size, position, and distance to the window. Besides, we show in detail how the cell can be used to perform experiments of in situ FTIR, Raman, XAFS and ultrafast spectroscopy.
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