Plasmon-Driven Near-Field Photopolymerization in a Gold Nanoparticle Colloid

Plasmon-driven photopolymerization is a versatile, eco-friendly, and efficient method for preparing metal/polymer hybrid nanostructures. Excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances of Au nanoparticles (NPs) can be used to trigger the photopolymerization of a monomer. Despite diverse strategies reported to date, the preparation of Au/polymer hybrid nanostructures has only been demonstrated with Au NPs immobilized on a substrate, limiting their application and processability. In this work, we demonstrate the photopolymerization of acrylic acid on the surface of Au NPs in a colloid using visible light excitation. The influence of the excitation light wavelength and sacrificial hole scavenger on electron transfer is revealed. We found that decreasing the wavelength of excitation light provides longer-lived energetic electrons which can be extracted to form a relatively thick and uniform polymer layer on Au NPs. This unique approach for growing polymers in a metal nanoparticle colloid provides a new opportunity to synthesize and employ metal/polymer hybrid nanostructures in a wide suite of applications.