Observing electrochemistry on single plasmonic nanoparticles

Noble metal nanoparticles with plasmon resonance features have been widely applied in electrocatalysis and photo-electrochemistry owing to their unique physical, optical, and catalytic properties. As heterogeneity of nanostructures has considerable influence on their catalytic activities, investigation of electrochemical process on a single nano-catalyst is necessary to eliminate bulk effect and averaged results. Dark-field microscopy (DFM) enables the measurements of plasmon resonance scattering spectroscopy of a single nanoparticle. Integrating with electrochemistry, DFM provides a powerful tool to real-time monitor electrochemical reactions at the nanoscale surface to get new insight into the reaction mechanism. Herein, this mini-review presented impressive applications of DFM in single-nanoparticle electrochemistry and discussed recent progress on its performance with enhanced sensitivity and resolution.