Compared with single-component nanocrystals, core-shell nanocrystals show better performance in various areas, such as energy harvesting and storage, catalysis, sensing and functionalized targeted cell therapy. The solution-based fabrication process is the most common strategy for synthesizing core-shell structures. However, the complex and difficult-to-scale fabrication procedures severely reduce their practical applications. Besides, the thermodynamically driven process of the fabrication of core-shell nanostructures possesses several constraints on their size and geometry, the most prominent being the high degree of uniformity in their shape. If energy (or matter) could be channeled with super-resolution, more complex architectures would become possible, such as partial cladding of complex nanoparticles with nontrivial shapes. In this project, we exploit the plasmonic activity of the nanoparticle itself to help channel light into a nonuniform heatmap over the particle with sub-particle resolution. We show that surface plasmons which result from the coupling of light with the free electrons in a metal, can be harnessed to achieve a variety of pre-programmed designer core- shell nanostructures. By localizing the energy carried by far-field radiation onto nanometer-sized regions, surface plasmon effectively create hot blueprints that drive self- assembly of composite structures. Herein, several kinds of core-shell nanostructures are fabricated assisted by surface plasmon to illustrate the concept, and several possible applications of these complex nanomaterials are discussed.
Project end date: 08/01/18