Disputation: Kevin Gregor Both

Doctoral candidate Kevin Gregor Both at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, is defending the thesis “Plasmonically Enhanced Photocatalysis: Synthesis, Physical Properties and Applications”, for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor.

Time and place: – , Chemistry building: Auditorium 2
Image may contain: A man (Kevin) is looking straight at the camera and smiling. He is wearing framed glasses and a blue shirt under a grey sweater. He is standing against a grey background.

Kevin Gregor Both

The Disputation will be live streamed for everyone else.
The livestream will be activated 15 minutes before the Defence starts.

Trial lecture

January 19th, 10:15 AM, Auditorium 3, Chemistry building

Trial lecture title:

“Hydrogen economy and Power-to-X and the chemistry behind it all”

 

The trial lecture will be live streamed for everyone else.
The livestream will be activated 15 minutes before the trial lecture starts.

Kreeringssammendrag/Conferral summary 

Arbeidet introduserer en ny og unik, men likevel enkel metode for å optimalisere metalliske nanopartikler i og på overflaten til keramiske materialer. Dette muliggjør nye nanostrukturer for en rekke bruksområder. Spesielt ble de fotokatalytiske og elektrokjemiske egenskapene forbedret.

Main research findings

In this work, plasmonic metal nanoparticles (MNPs) are utilized to improve the photoelectrochemical (PEC) response of strontium titanate (STO). These nanoparticles were introduced by either direct exsolution, or by galvanically replacing previously exsolved less noble nanoparticles, i.e., nickel by gold, or copper by silver. Gold, copper, and silver were the materials chosen with significant plasmonic activity; while other metals were used to make nanoparticles with minimal plasmonic response. Overall, exsolution leads to well-socketed MNPs, a property seemingly inherited by the MNPs created by galvanic replacement. Well-socketed MNPs are extremely difficult to obtain by any other technique and have a favorable localized surface plasmon resonance peak shift. The PEC experiments revealed that mild reduction of STO decreases the material’s response, while further reduction increases the PEC response significantly. Gold MNPs increase the PEC performance until the MNPs reach a specific size and subsequently decrease the PEC performance when growing more prominent. This work highlights the ease by which well-socketed plasmonic MNPs can be created, some impossible to synthesize by other techniques, and how different reaction conditions can change the shape and size of the MNPs, ultimately tuning the localized surface plasmon resonance band shape and peak position.

Candidate contact information

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-gregor-both-63a4b79a/ (optional)

E-mail: k.g.both@smn.uio.no

Phone: +47 45 06 49 77 

Published Jan. 5, 2023 9:24 AM - Last modified Jan. 6, 2023 12:41 PM
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Adjudication committee

Professor Horst-Gunter Rubahn                            
Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Professor Per Persson
Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University, Department of Physics, Sweden

Professor Mats Tilset
Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Norway


Supervisors

Professor Truls Nordby
SMN, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo

Professor Øystein Prytz
Structure physics, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo

Researcher Athanasios Chatzitakis
SMN, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo

Researcher Kristin Bergum
SMN, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo

Researcher Per-Anders Stensby Hansen
SMN, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo

Chair of defence

Professor, Harald Walderhaug
Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo