Project description
Thermal pathways with ultrashort pulses for ultrafast photocatalysts
Chemical reactions involve the formation and breaking of bonds in molecules, with their rates determined by the reaction pathway. Using photoexcited plasmonic nanostructures can enhance reaction efficiency by creating a local environment that facilitates reactions at lower temperatures and energy barriers. However, most plasmonic photocatalysts operate steadily, which limits reaction rates and photon usage. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PATHWAYS project will explore thermal and non-thermal pathways using ultrashort pulses to develop new theoretical approaches to drive reactions. The project will use pulsed light to induce localised heating and enhance the photogeneration of hot carriers, promoting reactions with increased energy efficiency. Additionally, it will design metasurfaces to function as ultrafast photocatalysts.
Objective
Chemical transformations involve formation and breaking of bonds in molecules, and their rate is determined by the reaction pathway for converting reactants to products. The use of photoexcited plasmonic nanostructures to alter such pathways, hence improving the reaction economics, has recently emerged as a transformative solution to the extreme energy demands of traditional catalysis. Strong photothermal nanoheating and high-energy charge carriers can be optically induced in metal nanoparticles, creating a local environment where reactions occur at temperatures far below those of common catalysts and lowered energy barriers. Most plasmonic photocatalysts operate however in the steady state, which intrinsically restricts rates and photon usage, as the inherent dynamics of chemical bonds, catalyst surface, and light-matter interactions remain untapped.
This project aims at introducing new theoretical approaches breaking the steady-state paradigm to drive reactions along thermal and nonthermal pathways with ultrashort pulses. A comprehensive numerical model will be developed to rationalise the dynamics at play and design metasurfaces (ordered nanostructure arrays) working as photocatalysts in the ultrafast regime.
Pulsed (femto- to nanosecond) light will be used to induce transient localised heating and to enhance the photogeneration of hot carriers on timescales relevant to the chemical kinetics. The two effects will contribute to promote reactions with increased energy efficiencies: the intrinsic thermal nonlinearities of chemical processes will be leveraged to achieve rates out of reach in steady state, the dynamics of high-energy carriers will be tailored to unlock nonthermal channels with selectivity otherwise unattainable.
The envisaged predictive time-resolved models will guide experimental efforts and provide data-comparable results to demonstrate new concepts for enhancing photocatalysis via ultrafast nanophotonics, opening routes in light-driven.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysisphotocatalysis
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomics
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materials
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynanophotonics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsphotons
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global FellowshipsCoordinator
20133 Milano
Italy