Session 8-3

Abstract

The ability to control the exterior and interior surfaces of metals is interesting because convex/concave voids stabilize low coordination surface atoms and impose boundary conditions that generate intense and highly contorted electromagnetic (EM) fields. In this talk, I will describe how we make porous metal nanomaterials and then explain how pores impact their electrocatalytic and optical properties. Introducing porosity in metals creates ensembles of conductive junctions. When these junctions are sufficiently small, light can induce charge transfer across the junctions, affecting their optical properties via collective excitations of free electrons called surface plasmons (SPs). The combination of low-coordination surface atoms and SPs can drive photocatalytic reactions. We also devote much effort to adapting these porous metals with templates and integrating them into hierarchical structures with macroporous features, enabling them to function as EM antennae to detect and identify environmental contaminants, including microplastics (MPs).