Antimony- and Zinc-Doped Tin Oxide Shells Coated on Gold Nanoparticles and Gold–Silver Nanoshells Having Tunable Extinctions for Sensing and Photonic Applications

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Abstract
This paper reports the synthesis and study of doped metal oxides as the shell in core-shell nanoparticle architectures. Specifically, the manuscript describes the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and gold-silver nanoshells (GS-NSs) coated with antimony-doped and zinc-doped tin oxide shells (i.e., [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]) with comparison to the undoped SnO2-coated analogs [email protected] and [email protected] The doped tin oxide core-shell nanoparticles prepared here were thoroughly characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Separately, their optical properties were evaluated by UV-vis and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that noble metal nanoparticles such as Au NPs and GS-NSs, which exhibit strong surface plasmon resonances at visible to near-infrared wavelengths, can be activated across a broader region of the solar spectrum when used in conjunction with wide bandgap semiconductors. In particular, utilization of a GS-NS core induces a near-complete suppression in the electron-hole recombination processes in the tin oxide materials. Potential impacts on sensing and photonic applications are highlighted.
Funding Information
  • Welch Foundation (E-0024, E-1320)
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-18-1-0094)

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