UC Santa Barbara

The need to renewably store and utilize energy from chemical bonds has grown with recent economic and environmental concerns. Plasmonically-enabled devices have shown promise in various photosynthetic processes due to their scalable, cost-effective, and robust performance. Utilizing charge carriers derived from localized surface plasmons, these devices can drive various photoelectrochemical (PEC) reactions, however at limited efficiencies due to incomplete solar absorption. To improve broadband solar absorption in wide bandgap semiconductors, the plasmon resonance of different metal nanostructures in the visible are synthesized using anodic and sol-gel templating methods. Preliminary results suggest that gold nanoparticles and helical metal nanowires are well suited for photosensitization of titania for visible light absorption. Characterization by UV-Visible spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy, and photoelectrochemical measurements indicate that these templated methods can be utilized as the basis for synthesizing a variety of photoelectrochemical devices as well as unique plasmonic materials for applications including energy storage, sensing, and catalysis.