All forms of energy follow the law of conservation of energy, by which they can be neither created nor destroyed. Light-to-heat conversion as a traditional yet constantly evolving means of converting light into thermal energy has been of enduring appeal to researchers and the public. With the continuous development of advanced nanotechnologies, a variety of photothermal nanomaterials have been endowed with excellent light harvesting and photothermal conversion capabilities for exploring fascinating and prospective applications. Herein we review the latest progresses on photothermal nanomaterials, with a focus on their underlying mechanisms as powerful light-to-heat converters. We present an extensive catalogue of nanostructured photothermal materials, including metallic/semiconductor structures, carbon materials, organic polymers, and two-dimensional materials. The proper material selection and rational structural design for improving the photothermal performance are then discussed. We also provide a representative overview of the latest techniques for probing photothermally generated heat at the nanoscale. We finally review the recent significant developments of photothermal applications and give a brief outlook on the current challenges and future directions of photothermal nanomaterials.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00159

Photothermal Nanomaterials: A Powerful Light-to-Heat Converter

Electrocatalysis plays a vital role in energy conversion and storage in modern society. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is a highly attractive approach to enhance the electrocatalytic activity and selectivity with solar energy. LSPR excitation can induce the transfer of hot electrons and holes, electromagnetic field enhancement, lattice heating, resonant energy transfer and scattering, in turn boosting a variety of electrocatalytic reactions. Although the LSPR-mediated electrocatalysis has been investigated, the underlying mechanism has not been well explained. Moreover, the efficiency is strongly dependent on the structure and composition of plasmonic metals. In this review, the currently proposed mechanisms for plasmon-mediated electrocatalysis are introduced and the preparation methods to design supported plasmonic nanostructures and related electrodes are summarized. In addition, we focus on the characterization strategies used for verifying and differentiating LSPR mechanisms involved at the electrochemical interface. Following that are highlights of representative examples of direct plasmonic metal-driven and indirect plasmon-enhanced electrocatalytic reactions. Finally, this review concludes with a discussion on the remaining challenges and future opportunities for coupling LSPR with electrocatalysis.

Localized surface plasmon resonance for enhanced electrocatalysis

Enhancing the light‐matter interactions is important for many different applications like sensing, surface enhanced spectroscopies, solar energy harvesting, and for quantum effects such as nonlinear frequency generation or spontaneous and stimulated emission. Hybrid metal‐dielectric nanostructures have shown extraordinary performance in this respect, demonstrating their superiority with respect to bare metallic or high refractive index dielectric nanostructures. Such hybrid nanostructures can combine the best of two worlds: strong confinement of the electromagnetic energy by metallic structures and high scattering directivity and low losses of the dielectric ones. In this review, following a general overview of the properties of metal‐dielectric nanostructures, some of their most relevant applications including directional scattering, sensing, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, absorption enhancement, fluorescence and quantum dot emission enhancement, nonlinear effects, as well as lasing, are summarized.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/adpr.202100286

Applications of Hybrid Metal‐Dielectric Nanostructures: State of the Art

By proposing an atomically thick dielectric coating on a metal nanoemitter, we theoretically show that the optical field tunneling of ultrafast-laser-induced photoemission can occur at an ultralow ...

Plasmon-Enhanced Resonant Photoemission Using Atomically Thick Dielectric Coatings.

Sunlight-driven photocatalytic CO2 reduction provides intriguing opportunities for addressing the energy and environmental crises faced by humans. The rational combination of plasmonic antennas and active transition metal-based catalysts, known as "antenna-reactor" (AR) nanostructures, allows the simultaneous optimization of optical and catalytic performances of photocatalysts, and thus holds great promise for CO2 photocatalysis. Such design combines the favorable absorption, radiative, and photochemical properties of the plasmonic components with the great catalytic potentials and conductivities of the reactor components. In this review, recent developments of photocatalysts based on plasmonic AR systems for various gas-phase CO2 reduction reactions with emphasis on the electronic structure of plasmonic and catalytic metals, plasmon-driven catalytic pathways, and the role of AR complex in photocatalytic processes are summarized. Perspectives in terms of challenges and future research in this area are also highlighted.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/advs.202302568

Promises of Plasmonic Antenna-Reactor Systems in Gas-Phase CO2 Photocatalysis.

Plasmonic nanoparticle (NP) dimers, generating highly intense areas of electric field enhancement named hot spots, have been playing a vital role in various applications like surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). For stabilization and functionalization, such metallic NPs are often coated with dielectric shells, yet suffering from a rapid degeneration of the hot spot with the increase of the shell thickness. Herein, it is demonstrated that the use of appropriately high refractive dielectric coatings can greatly reduce the loss of local electric field enhancement, maintaining usable hot spots. Two mechianisms work synergistically. Firstly, high refractive index dielectric coating enables a great leap of the local electric fields reaching the gap, which follows the boundary conditions at the interface within electrodynamics. Secondly, owing to its strong Mie resonances that can participate in the plasmon hybridization, high refractive index dielectric coating contributes to strong light coupling effect in terms of improving the light absorption efficiency. Taking advantages of the proposed physical process decomposition, both the resonance shift and local electric field enhancement can be elaborated. These findings should be of significant importance in extended applications of surface enhanced spectroscopies and related plasmonic devices based on hot spots.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-648X/ab51f1/pdf

Reducing the loss of electric field enhancement for plasmonic core-shell nanoparticle dimers by high refractive index dielectric coating.

Enhancing local electric fields at plasmonic nanogaps by optimal dielectric coatings

Mie-Resonance-Enhanced Visible Light Absorption in Dielectric-Supported Small Pt Nanoparticles for Photocatalysis

Anomalous effects of dielectric coated plasmonic metal nanoparticles on solar absorption enhancement in perovskite thin films

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6463/ab3553/pdf

Enhancing the plasmonic fields by a high refractive index dielectric coating for surface enhanced spectroscopies

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