Research Cluster for Plasmonic Photocatalysis

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Development of Plasmonic Photocatalysts for Environmental Applications

Cluster Leader Ewa KOWALSKA

Member Ryu ABE (Kyoto Univ.), Agata MARKOWSKA-SZCZUPAK (West Pomeranian Univ. of Technology. Poland), Christophe COLBEAU-JUSTIN (Paris-sud Univ., Australia), Sven RAU (Ulm Univ., Germany), Adriana ZALESKA (Gdansk Univ., Poland), Hynd REMITA (Univ. de Paris-Sud, France), Saulius JUODKAZIS (Swinburne Univ. of Technology, Australia), Marcin JANCZAREK (Gdansk Univ. of Technology. Poland), Izabela Rzeznicka, Zhishun Wei , Shuaizhi Zheng, Damian Kowalski, Emma Richards

Our research will focus on development of photofunctional nanoparticles with plasmonic properties (LSPR) at visible range of solar spectrum, i.e. mono and bimetallic photocatalysts composed of gold, silver, copper and wide-band semiconductor. We will investigate the mechanism of pollutants degradation under both UV and visible light irradiation and effect of electric field induced by LSPR absorption which may accelerates photocatalytic activities to find key factors and an exact correlation between activities and physicochemical properties. The plasmonic photocatalysts will be also modified with photoactive complexes (homogeneous photocatalyst) to enhance photocatalytic activity and to study the mechanism of photon absorption, charge carriers transfer and redox reactions.

Fig. 1 Scheme for plasmonic photocatalysts as self-cleaning & antiseptic material.