Thermochromism, a perspective of light to heat conversion mediated by metal nanoparticles

ABSTRACT

Measuring temperatures at small scales, especially around nanoparticles, is a crucial step for a variety of applications in biomedicine and in optics. Here, we report on a novel method to map temperature in the medium surrounding silver nanoparticles dispersing them in a thermochromic mixture prepared using an organic dye and a polymer. When the nanocomposite is irradiated with visible light, nanoparticles convert light into heat and the nanocomposite changes its colour. The temperature around silver nanoparticles can be, then, easily evaluated from this colour variation. The proposed method can be implemented in temperature monitoring devices of the nanoparticles surrounding media.

KEYWORDS:

• Nanomaterials
• Thermo-optical materials
• silver nanoparticles

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Prof. E. Lacaze, from INSP, Paris, for kindly providing silver nanoparticles and Prof. B. Nagy Janos, University of Calabria, for useful discussions.

Funding

This work was partially supported by the MIUR-PON projects: PON03PE_00092_1 EOMAT and PON01_01840 MICROPERLA.