Plasmons and rust for solar energy conversion

Summary form only given. We will present progress towards the use of plasmonic metal nanostructures to enhance the efficiency of solar fuel generation. The central idea of this work is to employ plasmonic metal nanostructures deposited metal nanoparticles or lithographically patterned structures to efficiently concentrate sunlight near the surface of a semiconductor electrode. In this way, optical absorption close to the electrode surface is enhanced, precisely where the photo generated electron-hole pairs are split and the relevant chemical reactions are taking place. This paper opens up an exciting new avenue for the use of plasmonic structures, exploiting the unique optical properties of metal nanostructures to direct electromagnetic energy precisely where it is needed to drive photoelectrochemical reactions.