Conventional photocatalysts must be activated by ultraviolet or visible light to meet the energy requirement of populating an initial excited state, while infrared light has a high penetration depth to reaction media but does not have enough photon energy to activate conventional photocatalysts. Here, we report the activation of Ag nanoparticles by upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) in UCNPs@SiO₂@Ag with manipulated energy transfer for infrared photocatalysis. UCNPs can efficiently convert infrared light to visible and ultraviolet light and are very ideal candidates for bridging the advantage of infrared light and the activation energy requirement of conventional photocatalysts. In the UCNPs@SiO₂@Ag nanosystem, we employ the UCNPs to activate conventional Ag nanoparticles under infrared light irradiation. The evanescent field of UCNPs is confined for enhancing the near-field energy-transfer efficiency using a designed core/shell heterostructure, while a SiO₂ layer is used for blocking the phonon exchange of thermal vibration between photon upconverters and Ag nanoparticles. Based on the manipulated energy transfer, UCNPs@SiO₂@Ag nanoparticles exhibit efficient photocatalytic activity under the irradiation of 980 nm infrared light, while single Ag nanoparticles have negligible catalytic activity under infrared irradiation.

中文翻译：

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操纵UCNPs @ SiO ₂ @Ag纳米粒子中的能量转移，以进行高效的红外光催化

常规的光催化剂必须被紫外线或可见光激活，以满足满足初始激发态所需的能量，而红外光对反应介质的穿透深度很高，但没有足够的光子能量来激活常规的光催化剂。在这里，我们报告通过上转换纳米粒子（UCNPs）在UCNPs @ SiO ₂ @Ag中的上转换纳米粒子（AgNP）的激活与能量转移进行红外光催化的激活。UCNPs可以有效地将红外光转换为可见光和紫外光，并且是弥合红外光优势和常规光催化剂所需的活化能的理想选择。在UCNPs @ SiO _2中@Ag纳米系统，我们采用UCNPs在红外光照射下激活常规的Ag纳米颗粒。使用设计的核/壳异质结构将UCNP的van逝场限制在提高近场能量传输效率上，而SiO ₂层则用于阻止光子上变频器与Ag纳米粒子之间的声子热振动声子交换。基于受控的能量转移，UCNPs @ SiO ₂ @Ag纳米颗粒在980 nm红外光的照射下表现出有效的光催化活性，而单个Ag纳米颗粒在红外辐射下的催化活性可忽略不计。