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SUMMARY:Spectroscopic Probes of Plasmon-Driven Chemical Reactions
LOCATION:Virtual Seminar
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20209201T000000
UID:2026-05-21-17-33-34@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260521T173334
Description:Plasmonic materials are highly promising photoredox catalysts f
 or driving energetically unfavorable chemical reactions with light\, due t
 o their large optical cross sections and ability to generate a number of h
 ot holes and electrons. However\, the efficiencies of most plasmon-driven 
 processes are quite low\, likely due to the lack of mechanistic understand
 ing of the underlying physical processes. Plasmons can concentrate electro
 magnetic fields\, can generate highly energetic electrons and holes\, and 
 can heat up local environments. An understanding of the energy partitionin
 g into each of these processes is crucial to the design of plasmonic photo
 catalysts which are optimized for chemical selectivity. Here I’ll discus
 s our development of ultrafast surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) 
 to probe the behavior of molecules in plasmonic hot spots. By probing on t
 he relevant timescales\, we are able to uncover how and when the plasmon e
 nergy is converted into hot carriers\, molecular heating\, or resonant ene
 rgy transfer. We use a new form of ultrafast Raman thermometry to probe en
 ergy transferred into adsorbed molecules as heat\, showing that the plasmo
 n-induced heating contribution to catalysis is negligible. Additionally\, 
 we probe hot carrier transfer events and use SERS substrates with tunable 
 electromagnetic field enhancements to examine the effects of local fields 
 on chemical reactivity. These results quantitatively determine the energy 
 partitioning of plasmon decay\, and highlight the unique ability of these 
 plasmonic materials to drive energetically unfavorable chemical reactions.
  4:00 pm
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