A plasmon-driven selective surface catalytic reaction revealed by surface-enhanced Raman scattering in an electrochemical environment

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2015

Plasmonic catalytic reactions of molecules with single amine or nitro groups have been investigated in recent years. However, plasmonic catalysis of molecules with multiple amine and/or nitro groups is still unknown. In this paper, plasmon-driven catalytic reactions of 4,4'-dinitroazobenzene (DNAB), 4,4'-diaminoazobenzene (DAAB) and 4-nitro-4'-aminoazobenzene (NAAB) are investigated using electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. The results reveal that a plasmon-driven reduction reaction occurred for DNAB and NAAB in which the NO 2 group was reduced to NH 2, while the plasmon-driven oxidation reaction of NH 2 did not occur. This result demonstrates that plasmon-driven reduction reactions are much easier than plasmon-driven oxidization reactions in electrochemical environments. The molecular resonance may also play an important role in plasmon-driven catalytic reactions. These findings provide us with a deeper understanding of plasmon-driven catalytic reactions.