Catalysis-Driven Self-Thermophoresis of Janus Plasmonic Nanomotors

Weiwei Qin; Tianhuan Peng; Yanjing Gao; Fei Wang; Xiaocai Hu; Kun Wang; Jiye Shi; Di Li; Jicun Ren; Chunhai Fan

doi:10.1002/anie.201609121

Catalysis-Driven Self-Thermophoresis of Janus Plasmonic Nanomotors

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Jan 9;56(2):515-518. doi: 10.1002/anie.201609121. Epub 2016 Dec 6.

Authors

Weiwei Qin^{1

2}, Tianhuan Peng^{1

2}, Yanjing Gao^{1

2}, Fei Wang^{1

2}, Xiaocai Hu³, Kun Wang¹, Jiye Shi¹, Di Li¹, Jicun Ren³, Chunhai Fan¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Physical Biology & Bioimaging Centre, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
³ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.

PMID: 27921355
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201609121

Abstract

It is highly demanding to design active nanomotors that can move in response to specific signals with controllable rate and direction. A catalysis-driven nanomotor was constructed by designing catalytically and plasmonically active Janus gold nanoparticles (Au NPs), which generate an asymmetric temperature gradient of local solvent surrounding NPs in catalytic reactions. The self-thermophoresis behavior of the Janus nanomotor is monitored from its inherent plasmonic response. The diffusion coefficient of the self-thermophoresis motion is linearly dependent on chemical reaction rate, as described by a stochastic model.

Keywords: Janus nanoparticles; nanomotors; plasmons; thermophoresis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't