Hot-Electron Photodynamics of Silver-Containing Nanosized Zeolite Films Revealed by Transient Absorption Spectroscopy

Supported metal nanoparticles are attractive materials for hot-electron driven chemistry applications. Here very small Ag nanoparticles (NPs) have been stabilized in LTL nanozeolites that have been assembled in dense and transparent films (AgLTL). The photodynamics of the hot electrons in AgLTL was investigated by femtosecond transient absorption measurements. It is shown that in this material, the absorption of a single photon induces the formation of highly reactive hot-electron distribution characterized by an initial temperature higher than 4000 K. The excess of energy is dissipated by electron–phonon coupling into the metal lattice while the zeolite framework does not perturb significantly the electron dynamics. These results reveal the high potential of silver containing nanosized zeolites for plasmonic chemistry applications under solar illumination conditions.