Abstract
Probing ion-intercalating processes in electrodes is hugely important for batteries, supercapacitors, and photovoltaic devices. In this work we use single-nanoparticle (NP) probes to see real-time molecular changes correlated to electrochemically modulated ion-intercalation in metal-oxide electrodes. Using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) transduced by single NP probes, we observe that the Raman frequencies and spectral intensities of the adsorbed molecules vary on cycling the electrochemical potential on a vanadium-oxide electrode. The potential-dependent frequency shifts in SERS from an electrochemically inert molecule are attributed to a Stark effect induced by chemical and structural changes as a result of ion-intercalation processes in vanadium oxide. Our study opens up a unique strategy to explore adsorbates and molecular reaction pathways on ion-intercalating materials and semiconducting interfaces.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 495-498 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Nano Letters |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 12 Feb 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Transition metal oxides
- interfacial reactions
- nanoparticles
- plasmons
- surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)
