Smart Design of Noble Metal–Copper Chalcogenide Dual Plasmonic Heteronanoarchitectures for Emerging Applications: Progress and Prospects

Abstract

Dual plasmonic metal–semiconductor heteronanostructures have been actively investigated due to their outstanding functional characteristics arising from the merging of two materials. In this review, the synthetic approaches, various designs, enhanced properties, and prospective applications of noble metal–nonstoichiometric copper chalcogenide nanosystems are summarized. The tunable size, shape, structure type (solid or hollow), composition, and doping level of the constituents produce several configurations of heteronanocomposites reported here. The colloidal synthetic approaches for the fabrication of dual plasmonic nanomaterials with controllable plasmonic properties are presented as well. The unique features of dual plasmonic nanostructures show synergistic and plasmon resonance coupling effects and enhanced light–matter interactions, which cannot be simply assigned to the mixture of pristine materials. Dual plasmonic hybrid nanosystems are promising candidates for enhanced photocatalysis, photothermal cancer therapy, improved sensing, photovoltaic devices, and upconversion luminescence. In conclusion, a brief outlook of the identified challenges in the area of dual plasmonic noble metal–vacancy-doped copper chalcogenide nanomaterials to be addressed in the nearest future is provided.

Goldilocks Energy Minimum: Peptide-Based Reversible Aggregation and Biosensing

“…Inhibitor assay and specificity test further confirmed the critical role of M pro in the dissociation process, showing no non-specific activation. Our dissociation peptides successfully dissociated silver clusters, demonstrating the capability of our dissociation platform for potential future studies involving a variety of plasmonic nanomaterials including anisotropic or multicomponent nanostructures that can induce distinct changes in extinction spectra through the dissociation process. Lastly, we demonstrated that our dissociation strategy can be less interrupted by matrixes such as human plasma, urine, and seawater, and the dissociated AuNPs maintained high colloidal stability.…”

Perovskite-Chalcogenide Epitaxial Heterostructures: Possibility of Multiple Axial Orientations of CsPbBr3 Nanocrystals on PbBi2S4 Nanorods

“…In case of a halide perovskite, the facets of orthorhombic CsPbBr 3 , the most widely studied halide perovskite nanocrystals, are considered to provide the driving force for connecting chalcogenide nanostructures. ,, At the beginning, a six-faceted cube shape was reported ,, and then tuning ligand chemistry, 12 as well as 26 faceted nanocrystals which have different exposed surfaces are synthesized. − These polyhedral nanocrystals indeed opened an avenue in providing more opportunities for possible lattice matching induced heteroepitaxy formation. However, these are limited and no generic route or the reaction chemistry is established yet which could guide the formation of larger combinations of heterostructures for perovskite family like the widely established chalcogenide or metal oxide systems. − …”

Roles of Heterojunction and Cu Vacancies in the Au@Cu2–xSe for the Enhancement of Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction Performance

“…The creation of a heterojunction between plasmonic metals and semiconductors is a promising strategy for tuning optical responses and tailoring properties in photo- and electrochemical catalysis. Hybrid nanostructures consisting of a plasmonic Au metal core and a Cu 2– x Se semiconductor shell are known as dual-plasmonic hybrid nanomaterials. − At the interface between plasmonic metal and semiconductor within core@shell-structured Au@Cu 2– x Se nanoparticles, an Ohmic junction is formed between Au and Cu 2– x Se owing to the comparatively lower work function of the p-type semiconductor (Φ Cu 2– x Se = 4.8 eV) compared to that of metal Au (Φ Au ∼ 5.2–5.4 eV) (Φ s < Φ M ). , As a result, electrons are spontaneously transferred from Cu 2– x Se to Au through the heterointerface until the Fermi levels reach equilibrium, creating a strong interfacial electrical field in the heterostructure. This interfacial electric field induces electron depletion on the surface of Au@Cu 2– x Se nanoparticles. , This can be used to facilitate N 2 adsorption while preventing H + adsorption, thus enhancing the ENRR performance.…”