Strong-Coupling for Optimal Plasmon-Catalysis

Project Information

SCOPC

Grant agreement ID: 101065117

DOI

10.3030/101065117

Project closed

EC signature date 1 August 2022

Start date 12 January 2023

End date 11 January 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 222 727,68

Coordinated by

CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOGSKOLA AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SCOPC (Strong-Coupling for Optimal Plasmon-Catalysis)

Reporting period: 2023-01-12 to 2025-01-11

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Our life and prosperity depends on the abundant use of catalysts used in the vast majority of chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
This might range from synthesizing modern fertilizers to feed the world, to enabling green energy technologies (e.g. hydrogen), and produce the drugs to cure the worlds plagues.
SCOPC set out to explore the opportunities on fostering a novel catalytic approach by leveraging the interplay between light and matter.
The interaction between light and matter can become so large, that they can no longer be distinguished, essentially merging into a new material comprising both to equal extend.
By controlling the confinement of light, imagine a mirror cabinet or box that traps the light, we can engineer this interaction and ultimately control the dynamic of, both, light and matter inside.
A promising new approach to catalysis, i.e. enhancing the speed at which chemical reactions proceed, involves irradiated small nanoparticles made of various metals (e.g. silver).
SCOPCs major objective was to explore the opportunities to boost this catalytic strategy, sometimes referred to as plasmonic catalysis, by designing a suitable confined for the surrounding light.
Boosting existing catalytic efficiency, reaching a more effective use of solar energy, or identifying new catalysts lead to major jumps in the prosperity of our society.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

SCOPCs main objectives have been: (i) to develop the necessary methodology to describe the strong interaction between (silver) nanoparticles and confined light, (ii) describe how charge is transferred to nearby molecules to trigger chemical reactions, and (iii) to push methodology to allow for description of more realistic systems in a more resourceful way by essentially stitching together solutions for smaller subsystems.
Step one has been accomplished by implementing a framework that allows for the simultaneous description of light (Maxwell equations) and the electronic structure of larger nanoparticles in a highly efficient way that barely affects the speed at which the material can be simulated. This is necessary to understand the interplay between light and matter.
This method has then be applied to nanoparticle systems with nearby molecules to simulate the impact of different confinements of the light onto the transfer of charge between nanoparticle and molecule. Boosting this transfer is considered to largely impact the catalytic efficiency of the entire system.
Lastly, we explored how more efficient descriptions can be designed and developed effective 'embedding' techniques to do.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SCOPC demonstrated that optical control can boost the catalytic efficiency of nanoparticles by at least a factor 6 to 7. A key publication can be found here Nano Lett. 2024, 24, 11913−11920.
Leveraging this insight will be a major goal of the next future. Especially experimental demonstration and exploring the usefulness for specific systems and processes will decide if SCOPC will impact industry and finally society over the following years and decades.
Our methodology can be further extended and promises to also assist the understanding of modern sensing techniques, providing a deeper insight into the processes and leveraging this to pave the way to future refinements.
Furthermore, our investigations into effective embedding strategies illustrated a peculiar dynamic of molecules in solution coupled strongly to optical fields. Our work demonstrated also possible limitations of such embedding techniques and provides a clear perspective on current challenges and future gains.

Boosting catalysis with SCOPC