Photothermal Transduction Efficiencies of Plasmonic Group 4 Metal Nitride Nanocrystals

摘要： The photothermal transduction e?ciencies of group 4 metal nitrides, TiN, ZrN, and HfN, at λ = 850 nm are reported, and the performance of these materials is compared to an Au nanorod benchmark. Transition metal nitride nanocrystals with an average diameter of ～15 nm were prepared using a solid-state metathesis reaction. HfN exhibited the highest photothermal transduction e?ciency of 65%, followed by ZrN (58%) and TiN (49%), which were all higher than those of the commercially purchased Au nanorods (43%). Computational studies performed using a ?nite element method showed HfN and Au to have the lowest and highest scattering cross section, respectively, which could be a contributing factor to the e?ciency trends observed. Furthermore, the changes in temperature as a function of illumination intensity and solution concentration, as well as the cycling stability of the metal nitride solutions, were studied in detail.