SCOPC · Strong-Coupling for Optimal Plasmon-Catalysis
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2023-01-12 → 2025-01-11
- EU contribution
- €222,728
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Strong-Coupling for Optimal Plasmon-Catalysis
Our life and prosperity depends on the abundant use of catalysts used in the vast majority of chemical and pharmaceutical industries. This might range from synthesizing modern fertilizers to feed the world, to enabling green energy technologies (e.g. hydrogen), and produce the drugs to cure the worlds plagues. SCOPC set out to explore the opportunities on fostering a novel catalytic approach by leveraging the interplay between light and matter. The interaction between light and matter can become so large, that they can no longer be distinguished, essentially merging into a new material comprising both to equal extend. By controlling the confinement of light, imagine a mirror cabinet or box that traps the light, we can engineer this interaction and ultimately control the dynamic of, both, light and matter inside. A promising new approach to catalysis, i.e., enhancing the speed at which chemical reactions proceed, involves irradiated small nanoparticles made of various metals (e.g. silver). SCOPCs major objective was to explore the opportunities to boost this catalytic strategy, sometimes referred to as plasmonic catalysis, by designing a suitable confined for the surrounding light. Boosting existing catalytic efficiency, reaching a more effective use of solar energy, or identifying new catalysts lead to major jumps in the prosperity of our society.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
SCOPC (Strong-Coupling for Optimal Plasmon-Catalysis) will provide a theoretical methodology and detailed investigation to improve photo-chemical plasmonic catalysis and extend it with a non-intrusive control-strategy. I will efficiently embed realistic external electromagnetic environments into first-principles density-functional theory calculations. Shaping this electromagnetic environment into the form of a resonator, the resonator, plasmonic particle and molecule constitute multi-component cavities which provide non-intrusive control over the plasmon-molecule dynamics by means of the size and quality of the external resonator. SCOPC paves a way to control photo-absorption cross-section and catalytic features on-the-flight without the need to change structure or composition of the nanoparticles. In addition, I will resolve current limitations of first-principles QED. Especially the limitation to treat only very few molecules strongly coupled to a photonic environment stands in clear conflict with experimental reality, a problem that will be resolved with the help of subsystem density-functional theory. I will provide a detailed study from first-principles on the impact of strong light-matter coupling on plasmonic catalysis and energy-transfer in general. SCOPC adds a new facet to plasmonic catalysis and delivers vital extensions to first-principles QED.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOGSKOLA AB · GoteborgCoordinatorSweden
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101065117
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e517020a25&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5fd35ca28&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union