Efficient and Sustainable Room-Temperature CO2 Conversion by Plasmonic Two-Dimensional Metal-Oxide Hybrid Nano-Interfaces

Abstract

- The state-of-the-art nanotechnologies ensure the establishment of sustainable green systems for CO 2 conversion. Recently, plasmonic two-dimensional (2D) nanostructures are found as effective platforms for efficient visible light-assisted photocatalysis. The plasmonic nanodomains grown on the surface of advanced 2D semiconductor materials represent a new class of hybrid nanostructures. These 2D hybrid nanostructures activate supplementary mechanisms at material heterointerfaces enabling a wide range of solar-activated physic-chemical reactions. Here, the controlled growth of plasmonic crystalline silver (Ag) nanodomains on the 2D surface oxide films of liquid Ga-based nanoparticles enabled the efficient CO 2 conversion through combined photocatalysis and acoustic-activated technique. Driven by acoustic energy, the multiple contribution of Ga 2 O 3 -Ag semiconductor/plasmonic hybrid 2D heterointerfaces enabled the visible-light assisted hot-electron generation at 2D plasmonic hybridinterfaces and therefore rose the CO 2 conversion efficiency to values higher than 94.6%. The inherent plasmonic characteristics of developed 2D nanojunction assembly accompanied by the commercial availability of acoustic activated technologies depict promising future for efficient and sustainable CO 2 conversion in industrial levels.