Nano-plasmonics

Let's deal with an individual nanoparticle as we want!

Plasmonic metals are advantageous in in-situ monitoring using dark-field microscopy due to their strong responses to visible light. The wavelength of this scattered light from localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is closely related to electron density on the particle surface, especially for nanoparticles. These characteristics can be tracked at a single-particle level, which enables powerful and detailed studies for various nanoscale reactions, such as Galvanic exchange, the Kirkendall effect, and numerous electrochemical redox reactions occurring on the local surfaces.

Our group wants to see the reactions happening on the nanoscale surfaces in extreme time and spatial resolutions. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) fits our aim; therefore, we combined our superior synthetic skills of plasmonic structures with reaction monitoring. As a result, we have successfully investigated photocatalytic hydrogen evolution on the metal-semiconductor hybrid nanoparticles,1 the in-situ morphology changes during nanoscale reactions,2,3 biophysical movement on the surface of live cells,4 and electrochemical deposition on hetero-metal surfaces.5,6

We will extend our ideas into the following topics:

1. Energy conversion reaction monitoring in in-situ and in-operando conditions

2. Guiding assembly patterns of nano-motifs in desired ways and studying their mechanisms

3. The origin of chirality and its evolution in nanoscale materials

Publications

[1] “Plasmonic Monitoring of Catalytic Hydrogen Generation by a Single Nanoparticle Probe”, D. Seo, G. Park, H. Song, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 1221-1227 (2012).

[2] “Ex-situ and In-situ Single Particle Monitoring of Temperature-Dependent Structural Evolution in Galvanic Exchange Reactions”, Y. Park, C. Lee, S. Ryu, H. Song, J. Phys. Chem. C 119, 20125-20135 (2015).

[3] “In-situ monitoring of individual plasmonic nanoparticles resolves multistep nanoscale sulfidation reactions hidden by ensemble-average”, Y. Park, H. Oh, J. Park, W. Choi, H. Ryu, D. Seo, H. Song, J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 23113-23123 (2019).

[4] “Single-Molecule Rotation for EGFR Conformational Dynamics in Live Cells “, Y. Park, S. Shin, H. Jin, J. Park, Y. Hong, J. Choi, B. Jung, H. Song, D. Seo, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 15161-15165 (2018).

[5] “Tracking Selective Electrochemical Copper Deposition on Individual Silver Nanocubes by Real-Time Single-Particle Plasmon Scattering Imaging”, H. Oh, Y. Park, H. Song, J. Phys. Chem. C 124, 37, 20398–20409 (2020).

[6] “Structural Complexity Induced by {110} Blocking of Cysteine in Electrochemical Copper Deposition on Silver Nanocubes”, H. Oh, H. Hwang, H. Song, Nanoscale 13, 1777-1783 (2021).