Abstract:

Sustainability and green chemistry is becoming an increasingly important aspect of modern society. Plasmonic gold nanoparticles are able to harness solar energy and convert it to drive useful chemical transformations. In my defense, I will talk about my work into the development plasmonic photocatalysis from synthesis to applications. During my Ph.D, I have applied lyophilization to fabricate supported nanocrystals for catalysts, a successful method that is not widely adopted. Applying this newly uncovered method, I am able to characterize the photocatalytic performance to elucidate the dominant mechanism that drive chemical reactions, photothermal effect or high energy charged carriers. Lastly, I applied applications of plasmonic photocatalysis to the fields of water reduction and nitrogen fixation for synthesizing carbon free fuels and fertilizer respectively.