Expanding the Plasmonic Color Palette: Enhancing Nanotechnology Education through a User-Friendly Teaching Platform

Abstract

Colors generated by plasmonic nanoparticles offer ideal access to nanotechnology for regular consumers, school pupils, or students. Unlike gold as a raw material, plasmonic gold nanoparticles change color with size due to the unique interaction of the metal's free electrons with the incident light. However, the color palette generated solely by gold nanoparticles is limited, thus limiting the user experience. Fortunately, using shapes with fewer symmetry axes and materials with lower damping can help expand the plasmonic color palette. Our research explores color perception in reflection and transmission for various types of nanoparticles, including cubic and silver nanoparticles. Our study revisits millennia-old plasmonic coloring techniques, contrasts historical methods with modern simulations, and shows integration into an existing teaching platform. This software architecture innovatively combines the open accessibility of Python with the visualization capabilities of the Unity game engine to create a user-friendly platform that transforms complex scientific computations into engaging and interactive educational applications. Finally, we systematically compared the user experiences of the teaching platform, revealing the overall positive perception of the learning concept. In such a way, we ensure that our platform is effective and provides a low-threshold way for individuals to access plasmonics using colloidal building blocks. Thereby, we create an intuitive approach to the potential of nanotechnology for everyone, making it an exciting and engaging study area.