The structure of nanomaterial determines their individual properties and assembled structures they can form [1,2]. Highly efficient photoenergy conversion in heterostructured nanoparticle (NP) assemblies requires the formation of epitaxial heterointerfaces and band alignment engineering. This requirement has led to attention being given to recent advances and prospects in the charge separation properties of both type-II semiconductor/semiconductor NPs [3-6] and plasmon/semiconductor NPs [7,8]. Special attention has been given to plasmonic semiconductor/semiconductor combinations [7,8], where the near infrared plasmon-induced carriers in the plasmonic semiconductor phase are injected into the conduction band of another semiconductor phase.

[1] Wu, H.-L.; Sato, R.; Yamaguchi, A.; Kimura, M.; Haruta, M.; Kurata, H.; Teranishi, T. Science 2016, 351, 1306.

[2] Kanehara, M.; Arakawa, H.; Honda, T.; Saruyama, M.; Teranishi, T. Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 18, 9230.

[3] Saruyama, M.; So, Y.-G.; Kimoto, K.; Taguchi, S.; Kanemitsu, Y.; Teranishi, T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 17598.

[4] Sakamoto, M.; Inoue, K.; Saruyama, M.; So, Y.-G.; Kimoto, K.; Okano, M.; Kanemitsu, Y.; Teranishi, T. Chem. Sci. 2014, 5, 3831.

[5] Teranishi, T.; Samamoto, M. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2013, 4, 2867. (Perspective)

[6] Sakamoto, M.; Inoue, K.; Okano, M.; Saruyama, M.; Kim, S.; So, Y.-G.; Kimoto, K.; Kanemitsu, Y.; Teranishi, T. Nanoscale 2016, 8, 9517.

[7] Lian, Z.; Sakamoto, M.; Matsunaga, H.; Vequizo, J. J. M.; Yamakata, A.; Haruta, M.; Kurata, H.; Teranishi, T., under revision.

[8] Sakamoto, M.; Kimura, M.; Kawawaki, T.; Matsunaga, H.; Ranasinghe, C. S. K.; Yamakata, A.; Matsuzaki, H.; Furube, A.; Teranishi, T., submitted.