Plasmon-mediated dehydrogenation of the aromatic methyl group and benzyl radical formation.

Plasmonic molecular junctions can harvest visible light and effectively catalyze chemical reactions. The strong light field concentrated in the plasmonic junction also enables the application of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to probe the catalyzed chemical reactions and in real time down to single-molecule resolution. The benzyl radical produced from the aromatic methyl group through the dehydrogenation reaction is an important precursor for a large variety of reactions.