Surface plasmons on silver gratings transform pyrolytic carbon into luminescent graphitized carbon dots.

Plasmonic catalysis holds the promise of opening new reaction pathways that are inaccessible thermally or via direct UV-vis electronic transitions. Here, energetic carriers produced via the decay of surface plasmons excited by visible light at 532 nm (2.33 eV, green) on a Ag-grating-bearing pyrolytic carbon residue drive its transformation into light-emitting graphitized carbon dots.