Oxidative Reaction Energy in Photopolymerization Inspired by Plasmon Induced Charge Separation

Nanopolymerization based on plasmon-induced charge separation (PIGS) was performed on a gold nanoparticle-deposited TiO2 substrate. Phenol and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene, which have different oxidation potentials, were used as monomers. The action spectra of the polymerizations revealed that the wavelength limit of oxidation reactions based on PICS depended on the monomer. It should be caused by the different oxidation potentials of monomers. From these results, a possible mechanism of the generation of oxidation power on the metal nanoparticle based on PICS was proposed: originating from pulling down the Fermi level according to the photon energy of irradiating light.