Faster charge transfer mechanism could lead to better energy conversion devices

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have identified how gold nanoparticles transfer charge to a connecting semiconductor and quantified how much charge is transferred using different colors of light. The researchers theorized that by using light to excite collective electronic oscillations (also called a plasmon) in gold nanoparticles, they would get a boost in charge transfer to the semiconductor material. And their study confirmed their theory.