The goal of this AFOSR funded MURI project is to establish a fundamental understanding of the reactive pathways and mechanisms of Plasmonic Photocatalysis with single atom alloy (SAA) and single atom catalysis(SAC) reactors, Both Plasmonic Photocatalysis and SAA/SAC catalysis bring fundamentally new capabilities to chemistry, and there are clear ways in which these two fields can be combined, to enhance the capabilities of both, in a practical manner. The scientific insights gained throughout this research will enable the design of efficient, high specificity, highly sustainable catalysts for small-molecule reactions leading to high-value chemical products.
The MURI Team effort consists of integrated theoretical and experimental studies to understand plasmonic photocatalysis with single-atom active sites. The team is led by Naomi Halas at Rice University with co-PIs from Rice University (P. Nordlander), Princeton University (E. Carter), UC Santa Barbara ( P. Christopher, Tufts University (C. Sykes), and Emory University (T. Lian).
The ongoing research projects in the Lian group is focused on applying time-resolved surface sensitive/selective tools to probe 1) plasmon induced hot carrier and energy transfer processes, and 2) hot carrier induced chemical reaction and vibrational dynamics of adsorbates on single-atom catalyst sites.
