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Heterogeneous catalysts play an important role in modern society for fossil fuel processes, pollutant removals, biomass conversion, fertilizer products, etc. Nanoparticles are among the most important heterogeneous catalysts for many different chemical reactions due to their nanometer size and high surface-area-to-volume ratio. In this study, we use the single-molecule fluorescence microscopy (SMFM) approach to monitor and deepen our understanding of the catalytic behaviors of a widely used semiconductor, titanium dioxide, on gold nanorods (TiO2@AuNRs) at the single-molecule level. A fluorogenic reaction of the oxidation of a non-fluorescent reactant amplex red (AR) to a fluorescent product resorufin (RF) was used to probe and quantify the reactivity of the nanocatalysts. We have observed that the addition of TiO2 on AuNRs induced the light-dependent activity for the complexed catalyst. Single-molecule analyses revealed detailed reaction kinetics and reaction mechanisms that are usually hidden in conventional averaged ensemble methods. Our work here uncovers the structure-performance correlation and guides the development of efficient photochemical catalysts. |
