Direct surface plasmon induced reduction of metal salts

In this communication, we report the surface plasmon induced reduction of metal salts wherein the ‘hot holes’ generated during the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles are indirectly used to reduce metal ions by a citrate oxidation step. Here we show the reduction process of two metals, namely silver and copper by exciting the gold nanoparticles with 589 and 658 nm light source at room temperature, thus highlighting the possibility of reducing metal salts by plasmon-mediated technique.

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► A new surface plasmon induced reduction technique is demonstrated.
► Reduction of silver and copper ions were succesfully demonstrated by exciting the gold nanoparticles with laser.
► UV–visible spectroscopy and TEM analysis confirmed the reduction process.