关键词: 光解, 单体电化学, 随机碰撞电化学, 银纳米颗粒

Abstract:

Light irradiation on silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) could cause the energy conversion, thus, the fragmentation of Ag NPs. It is important to detect the changes of fragmented Ag NPs in the aspects of physical and chemical properties. Herein, benefiting from the high sensitivity, high temporal resolution, and high-throughput, single entity electrochemistry (SEE) method is introduced to in-situ track the dynamic laser fragmentation of single Ag NP. Compared with UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), SEE methods enables an accurate in-situ measurements of light-induced fragmentation of single Ag NP. The variation in the statistic current amplitude displays the real-time changes of single Ag NP upon laser irradiation for 60 min, which indicates that the laser of 532 nm wavelength is the most effective laser for the dynamic fragmentation. By virtue of the excellent sensing performance, SEE is further applied in revealing the heterogeneity in Ag NPs’ intrinsic physicochemical properties, such as size, crystal structure, surface charge density. The study highlights the potential of SEE to advancing the real-time characterization of nanomaterials in the chemical reactions.

Key words: light-induced fragmentation, single entity electrochemistry, stochastic collision electrochemistry, single silver nanoparticles