Geometry Control and Optical Tunability of Metal–Cuprous Oxide Core–Shell Nanoparticles

Abstract

Metal-semiconductor hybrid heteronanostructures may exhibit synergistically reinforced optical responses and significantly enhanced optical tunability that essentially arise from the unique nanoscale interactions between the metal and semiconductor components. Elaboration of multi-component hybrid nanoparticles allows us to achieve optimized or diversified material functionalities through precise control over the dimension and morphology of the constituent building units, on one hand, and through engineering their relative geometrical arrangement and interfacial structures, on the other hand. Here we study the geometry-dependent optical characteristics of metal-cuprous oxide (Cu(2)O) core-shell hybrid nanoparticles in great detail through combined experimental and theoretical efforts. We demonstrate that several important geometrical parameters, such as shell thickness, shell crystallinity, shell porosity, and core composition, of the hybrid nanoparticles can be tailored in a highly precise and controllable manner through robust wet chemistry approaches. The tight control over the particle geometries provides unique opportunities for us to develop quantitative understanding of how the dimensions, morphologies, and electronic properties of the semiconducting shells and the geometry and compositions of the metallic cores affect the plasmon resonance frequencies, the light scattering and absorption cross sections, and the overall extinction spectral line shapes of the hybrid nanoparticles. Mie scattering theory calculations provide further insights into the origin of the geometrically tunable optical responses and the interesting extinction spectral line shapes of the hybrid nanoparticles that we have experimentally observed.

Synthesis of Ultrasmall Cu2O Nanocubes and Octahedra with Tunable Sizes for Facet-Dependent Optical Property Examination

“…[ 13 ] When the Cu 2 O shells are not single-crystalline or do not have sharp faces, absorption band from the plasmonic metal cores can shift progressively to the red with increasing shell thickness. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The emergence of facet-dependent optical properties of these metal-Cu 2 O nanocrystals actually comes from the Cu 2 O shells, since the Cu 2 O absorption band for smaller cubes is more redshifted than somewhat larger octahedra.…”

光热响应的Cu7S4@pNIPAm纳米载体应用于可控的药物/光热治疗

“…These smart DDSs offer the possibility to remotely and noninvasively control the drug release, which would substantially improve treatment efficacy and reduce side effects [14]. Particularly, DDSs that encapsulate components displaying extensive near infrared (NIR) light absorption within a polymer matrix for photothermal-responsive drug release have been the focus due to the deep penetration ability and biological safe features of NIR irradiation [15][16][17]. So far, one of the most frequently studied polymers is poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm), of which the conformation is sensitive to the surrounding temperature [18].…”

TEMPLATE STRATEGY FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF Cu2O–Pt HIERARCHICAL HETEROSTRUCTURES FOR THE DEGRADATION OF METHYLENE BLUE

“…7,8 As a result of the special properties, Cu 2 O has been considered as the promising material with potential applications in chemical reaction catalysis, 9 photocalysis, 10,11 gas sensors, 12 solar energy conversion, 13 templates, 14À17 antibacterial activity, 18 metalÀinsulatorÀmetal resistive switching memory, 19 cancer therapeutic agent. In the past decade, numerous scienti¯c workers have paid great attention to the development of the noble metal-Cu 2 O, 20 meanwhile, to understand the mechanism of the progress within the reaction. Galvanic replacements have taken a vitally important role during the development of heterostructure nanocrystals.…”