Benjamin Adams (DuChene group): Plasmonic nanoparticles, particularly silver and gold, have shown great potential for photocatalysis due to their unique optical properties. When these plasmonic nanoparticles absorb light, they generate highly energetic, so-called “hot carriers,” that exhibit strong reducing and oxidizing potentials capable of driving a variety of photocatalytic reactions that are otherwise difficult to initiate. Unfortunately, these hot carriers suffer from kinetic limitations due to their very short lifetimes, and further research is needed to understand how to harness these hot carriers for photochemistry. Our work involves using the light-driven synthesis of metal nanoparticles, a photocatalytic reaction involving materials growth, to study the thermodynamics and kinetics of plasmon-derived hot carriers in metal nanoparticles. Recently, we have developed the first light-driven synthesis of copper nanoparticles and are comparing the details of this photochemical reaction to that of both silver and gold nanoparticles. We aim to unravel the underlying mechanisms of light-driven synthesis in these three metals by systematically varying light intensity, wavelength, redox species, oxygen levels, and nanoparticle size. The insight gained from these fundamental studies of hot carriers in copper, silver, and gold systems will pave the way for improved synthetic strategies across a broader array of materials for new photocatalytic reactions.