Near Field Scattering Optical Model-Based Catalyst Design for Artificial Photoredox Transformation

The sun offers a clean and renewable energy cornucopia, whereas how to utilize this inexhaustible yet decentralized energy with the assistance of appropriate media is an enduring topic. Plasmonic metal-based nanostructures (mainly Au and Ag) represent a class of fascinating materials for solar energy conversion due to their exclusive surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-enabled light-harvesting capability. In contrast to these plasmonic metals with characteristic SPR peaks, modulating the optical absorption peaks of nonplasmonic metals (e.g., small Pt nanoparticles) in the visible region but without size alteration is a grand challenge. Until recently, we demonstrated a near field scattering (NFS) optical model to manipulate the absorption peaks of Pt nanoparticles by adjusting their dielectric environment, sowing the seeds for tuning the optical absorption property of other metal nanoparticles and even semiconductor quantum dots. It is the purpose of the present Perspective to retrospect the history of NFS optical model and guide the function-oriented design of NFS-based nanostructures for artificial photoredox transformation.