Black Titanium Oxide/Activated TaS Flakes Photoelectrode for Plasmon Assisted Hydrogen Evolution at Neutral pH at High Current Density.

A heterojunction photo-electrode(s) consisting of porous black titanium oxide (bTiO) and electrochemically self-activated TaS flakes is proposed and utilized for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The self-activated TaS flakes provide abundant catalytic sites for HER and the porous bTiO, prepared by electrochemical anodization and subsequent reduction serves as an efficient light absorber, providing electrons for HER. Additionally, Au nanostructures are introduced between bTiO and TaS to facilitate the charge transfer and plasmon-triggering ability of the structure created.

Plasmon-Mediated Organic Photoelectrochemistry Applied to Amination Reactions.

Organic electrochemistry is currently experiencing an era of renaissance, which is closely related to the possibility of carrying out organic transformations under mild conditions, with high selectivity, high yields, and without the use of toxic solvents. Combination of organic electrochemistry with alternative approaches, such as photo-chemistry was found to have great potential due to induced synergy effects. In this work, we propose for the first time utilization of plasmon triggering of enhanced and regio-controlled organic chemical transformation performed in photoelectrochemical regime.

Merging gold plasmonic nanoparticles and L-proline inside a MOF for plasmon-induced visible light chiral organocatalysis at low temperature.

Light-driven asymmetric photocatalysis represents a straightforward approach in modern organic chemistry. In comparison to the homogeneous one, heterogeneous asymmetric photocatalysis has the advantages of easy catalyst separation, recovery, and reuse, thus being cost- and time-effective. Here, we demonstrate how plasmon-active centers (gold nanoparticles - AuNPs) allow visible light triggering of chiral catalyst (proline) in model aldol reaction between acetone and benzaldehyde.

Bioinspired superhydrophobic SERS substrates for machine learning assisted miRNA detection in complex biomatrix below femtomolar limit.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an analytical method with high potential in the field of medicine. The design of SERS substrates, based on specific morphology and/or chemical modification, allow the recognition of the presence of specific analytes with precision close to a single-molecule detection limit. However, the SERS analysis of real samples is significantly complicated by the presence of a large number of "minor" molecules that can shield the signal from the target analyte and make it impossible to determine it in practice.

Nitrogen Photoelectrochemical Reduction on TiB Surface Plasmon Coupling Allows Us to Reach Enhanced Efficiency of Ammonia Production.

Ammonia is one of the most widely produced chemicals worldwide, which is consumed in the fertilizer industry and is also considered an interesting alternative in energy storage. However, common ammonia production is energy-demanding and leads to high CO emissions. Thus, the development of alternative ammonia production methods based on available raw materials (air, for example) and renewable energy sources is highly demanding.