H-Glass Supported Hybrid Gold Nano-Islands for Visible-Light-Driven Hydrogen Evolution.

Flat panel reactors, coated with photocatalytic materials, offer a sustainable approach for the commercial production of hydrogen (H) with zero carbon footprint. Despite this, achieving high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency with these reactors is still a significant challenge due to the low utilization efficiency of solar light and rapid charge recombination. Herein, hybrid gold nano-islands (HGNIs) are developed on transparent glass support to improve the STH efficiency.

Multi-Functional Applications of H-Glass Embedded with Stable Plasmonic Gold Nanoislands.

Metal nanoparticles (MNPs) are synthesized using various techniques on diverse substrates that significantly impact their properties. However, among the substrate materials investigated, the major challenge is the stability of MNPs due to their poor adhesion to the substrate. Herein, it is demonstrated how a newly developed H-glass can concurrently stabilize plasmonic gold nanoislands (GNIs) and offer multifunctional applications.

Nonlinear Optical Limiting and Radiation Shielding Characteristics of SmO Doped Cadmium Sodium Lithium Borate Glasses.

Strong nonlinear absorption (NLA), reduced optical limiting (OL) thresholds, and high radiation shielding parameters are required for the effective use of glasses in the laser radiation and nuclear radiation protecting materials. In view of this, the efficacy of SmO on the nonlinear optical (NLO) and OL properties were ascertained (at 532 nm) along with radiation shielding characteristics. The open and closed aperture Z-scan profiles revealed the presence of positive NLA and nonlinear refraction (NLR) phenomena respectively.

Optical limiting applications of resonating plasmonic Au nanoparticles in a dielectric glass medium.

Plasmonic nanostructures exhibiting high optical nonlinearities are widely used in the rapidly growing modern nanotechnology of nonlinear optics including biomedical applications due to their tunable plasmonic behavior. In this work, we investigate the nonlinear optical properties of uniformly distributed Au nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in pre-synthesized sodium-zinc borate glass by the well-known ion-exchange technique for optical limiting (OL) applications. Various techniques such as optical absorption spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Photoluminescence, Time of Flight secondary mass spectroscopy and the Z scan technique were used for the characterization of these NPs.