This frontier review highlights recent advances in solar-driven water evaporation using plasmonic metal nitride nanostructures, the current challenges, and future opportunities.
Refractory nanostructures can be low-cost and chemically and thermally robust alternatives to metal-based plasmonic materials. While transition metal nitrides have received much attention recently, there has been less emphasis on their closely related non-layered carbide counterparts. In this work, plasmonic group IV transition metal carbide (TiC, ZrC, and HfC) nanostructures were prepared using a facile magnesiothermic reduction method, which yielded a phase pure product. TiC, ZrC, and HfC with rock salt crystal structures and an average particle size of 24, 31, and 42 nm, respectively, were obtained by reacting corresponding metal oxide, magnesium, and biochar in the solid state. Calculations performed using a finite element method predicted these group IV carbide nanostructures to have localized surface plasmon resonance in the UV region between 150 and 175 nm. The photothermal transduction efficiency of each carbide was explored to further verify the plasmonic behavior. HfC was found to have the highest photothermal transduction efficiency of 73%, followed by ZrC (69%), and then TiC (60%) at 365 nm.
The ability of phosphacyclohexadienyl anions [Li(1-R-PC 5 Ph 3 H 2 )] [R = Me (1 a), nBu (1 b), tBu (1 c), Ph (1 d) and CH 2 SiMe 3 (1 e)] to initiate hydrofunctionalisation reactions was investigated and compared with simple, commercially available compounds, such as LiOtBu, KOtBu and nBuLi. All compounds are expedient catalysts for the hydroboration of a wide scope of substrates, ranging from aldehydes to imines and esters. In the hydroboration of carbon dioxide, however, only our system was observed to efficiently produce the desired methanol equivalents.
Refractory nanostructures are low-cost and chemically and thermally robust alternatives to noble metal based plasmonic materials. Transition metal nitrides have received much of the attention lately, but there has been less emphasis on closely related non-layered carbide counterparts. In this work, plasmonic group IV transition metal carbide (TiC, ZrC, and HfC) nanostructures were prepared using a facile magnesiothermic reduction method which yielded phase pure product. TiC, ZrC and HfC with rock salt crystal structure and an average particle size of 24, 31, and 42 nm, respectively were obtained by reacting corresponding metal oxide, magnesium, and biochar in solid-state. Calculations performed using finite element method predicted these group IV carbide nanostructures to have localized surface plasmon resonance in the UV region between 150 175 nm. The photothermal transduction efficiency of each carbide was explored to further verify the plasmonic behavior. HfC was found to have the highest photothermal transduction efficiency (73%), followed by ZrC (69%), and then TiC (60%) at 365 nm.
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