In Situ UV–Vis Spectroscopy Insights into the Role of Hole Scavengers during the Photodeposition of Uniform Gold Nanoparticles on Zinc Oxide
- 1Institute for Sustainable and Circular Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Universiteitsweg 99, 3584 CG Utrecht, The Netherlands
- 2AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 3Laboratory of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Abstract
Photodeposition has emerged as a promising technique to grow metal nanoparticles (NPs) on semiconductors through the reduction of metal ions by photoexcited electrons. It is known that metal NPs become more uniform when holes are subtracted by a hole scavenger. However, mechanistic insights into the effect of hole scavengers on the growth kinetics and resulting material properties and the effect of the type of hole scavenger are lacking. In this work, we use in situ UV–vis transmission spectroscopy to investigate the oxygen-deficient photodeposition of Au on ZnO. These measurements reveal that the presence of ethanol as a hole scavenger leads to faster nucleation and substantially accelerates the growth of Au NPs compared to the nonscavenged case. Although the effect of adding a hole scavenger is significant, the type of hole scavenger does not play a significant role in the final Au NP morphology. Therefore, adding a hole scavenger results in a higher density of Au NPs with a well-defined localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) band and a homogeneous size distribution of 9 ± 3 nm. By capturing real-time NP growth dynamics, inaccessible to ex situ methods, this study shows why a hole scavenger plays a significant role in the kinetics of Au NPs formation and why they lead to better-defined Au NPs with more controlled plasmonic properties.
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BibTeX
@article{grote2026situ,
title = {{In Situ UV–Vis Spectroscopy Insights into the Role of Hole Scavengers during the Photodeposition of Uniform Gold Nanoparticles on Zinc Oxide}},
author = {Roos L. Grote and Elaina Galvin and Nico van Mil and Ariq Attallah and Emiel J. M. Hensen and Erik C. Garnett and Bert M. Weckhuysen and Eline M. Hutter},
journal = {The Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Nanomaterials and Interfaces},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c03740},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c03740},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - In Situ UV–Vis Spectroscopy Insights into the Role of Hole Scavengers during the Photodeposition of Uniform Gold Nanoparticles on Zinc Oxide
AU - Roos L. Grote
AU - Elaina Galvin
AU - Nico van Mil
AU - Ariq Attallah
AU - Emiel J. M. Hensen
AU - Erik C. Garnett
AU - Bert M. Weckhuysen
AU - Eline M. Hutter
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/10
JO - The Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Nanomaterials and Interfaces
DO - 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c03740
UR - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c03740
AB - Photodeposition has emerged as a promising technique to grow metal nanoparticles (NPs) on semiconductors through the reduction of metal ions by photoexcited electrons. It is known that metal NPs become more uniform when holes are subtracted by a hole scavenger. However, mechanistic insights into the effect of hole scavengers on the growth kinetics and resulting material properties and the effect of the type of hole scavenger are lacking. In this work, we use in situ UV–vis transmission spectroscopy to investigate the oxygen-deficient photodeposition of Au on ZnO. These measurements reveal that the presence of ethanol as a hole scavenger leads to faster nucleation and substantially accelerates the growth of Au NPs compared to the nonscavenged case. Although the effect of adding a hole scavenger is significant, the type of hole scavenger does not play a significant role in the final Au NP morphology. Therefore, adding a hole scavenger results in a higher density of Au NPs with a well-defined localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) band and a homogeneous size distribution of 9 ± 3 nm. By capturing real-time NP growth dynamics, inaccessible to ex situ methods, this study shows why a hole scavenger plays a significant role in the kinetics of Au NPs formation and why they lead to better-defined Au NPs with more controlled plasmonic properties.
SN - 1932-7447
SN - 1932-7455
ER -