Plasmonic Nanoparticles and Island Films for Solar Energy Harvesting: A Comparative Study of Cu, Al, Ag and Au Performance

Alternative materials that can potentially replace Au and Ag in plasmonics and broaden its application potential have been actively investigated over the last decade. Cu and Al have been usually overlooked as plasmonic material candidates because they are prone to oxidisation. In this work the plasm...

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Published inCoatings (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 6; p. 382
Main Authors Fabijanić, Ivana, Janicki, Vesna, Ferré-Borrull, Josep, Bubaš, Matej, Blažek Bregović, Vesna, Marsal, Lluis F., Sancho-Parramon, Jordi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2019
Subjects
Aluminum
Comparative studies
Copper
Cubes
Dimers
Electromagnetic coupling
Energy harvesting
Gold
Material properties
Metals
Nanoparticles
Optical properties
Plasmonics
Radiation
Silver
Solar energy
Water vapor
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Summary:Alternative materials that can potentially replace Au and Ag in plasmonics and broaden its application potential have been actively investigated over the last decade. Cu and Al have been usually overlooked as plasmonic material candidates because they are prone to oxidisation. In this work the plasmonic performance of Cu and Al is investigated using numerical simulations of different nanostructures (spheres, cubes, rods and particle dimers) and taking into account the presence of oxidisation. It is shown that geometry can play a dominant role over material properties and the performance of Cu and Al becomes comparable to that of Ag and Au for systems of non-spherical particles and strong electromagnetic coupling among particles. This observation is experimentally confirmed by the fabrication and characterisation of Cu and Al metal island films. Optical characterisation of the samples reveals a comparable performance of these metals to that obtained for Ag and Au and suggests that Cu and Al metal island films can offer an efficient low-cost platform for solar energy harvesting, as shown in water vapour generation proof of concept experiments.
ISSN:2079-6412
2079-6412
DOI:10.3390/coatings9060382