Ag@CeO2 functional material

Revealed with tr-XAS a plasmon-mediated ultrafast charge transfer in Ag@CeO2 

J. S. Pelli Cresi et al. Nano Lett. 2021, 21, 4, 1729–1734
Expanding the activity of wide bandgap semiconductors from the UV into the visible range has become a central goal for their application in green solar photocatalysis. The hybrid plasmonic/semiconductor system, based on silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) embedded in a film of CeO is an example of a functional material developed with this aim. In this work, we take advantage of the chemical sensitivity of free electron laser (FEL) time-resolved soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (TRXAS) to investigate the electron transfer process from the Ag NPs to the CeO film generated by the NPs plasmonic resonance photoexcitation. Ultrafast changes (<200 fs) of the Ce N absorption edge allowed us to conclude that the excited Ag NPs transfer electrons to the Ce atoms of the CeO film through a highly efficient electron-based mechanism. These results demonstrate the potential of FEL-based TRXAS measurements for the characterization of energy transfer in novel hybrid plasmonic/semiconductor materials.

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