Direct hot-carrier transfer in plasmonic catalysis.

Plasmonic metal nanoparticles can concentrate optical energy and enhance chemical reactions on their surfaces. Plasmons can interact with adsorbate orbitals and decay by directly exciting a carrier from the metal to the adsorbate in a process termed the direct-transfer process. Although this process could be useful for enhancing the efficiency of a chemical reaction, it remains poorly understood. Here, we report a preliminary investigation employing time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) calculations to capture this process at a model metal-adsorbate interface formed by a silver nanoparticle (Ag