PhoCatSA: Photocatalytic self-assemblies combining molecules and nanoparticles
Research project selected under the 2015 call for proposals
Principal Investigator :
Simon Tricard ()
LPCNO (NCO)
Type of project : Disruptive Project
Date (start/end) : 2016 - 2018
Building-blocks of the self-assemblies: a. ultra-small platinum nanoparticles (1.1 ± 0.3 nm); b. coordination complex: Zn(tetraphenylporphyrin); c. Quantum Dots: Cd 3 P 2 @ZnS particles.
Abstract
Developing renewable energies is a current wide-ranging societal challenge. Photovoltaics and photocatalysis are two approaches that valorise solar light by producing charge separation in materials. The objective of the PhoCatSA project is to design hybrid materials, in which molecules and nanoparticles (NPs) interact – structurally and functionally – with each other, and to investigate how charges generated under light irradiation in coordination complexes and in quantum dots can be collected by metallic NPs to perform light-influenced charge transport and chemical reactivity. We will concentrate on ultra-small NPs showing Coulomb blockade at room temperature, which will play the role of charge reservoirs able to store a single electron (or a single vacancy). This approach will pave the way for a large range of potential applications where charge transport and chemical reactivity are generated by light at the nanoscale, and tuned electron per electron.