Plasmon-Driven Photothermal Conversion and Fluid Convection with a 2D Titanium Carbide (MXene)-Based Metasurface

Plasmonic nanostructures with photothermal effect have emerged as a powerful tool for optofluidic systems. Many studies have explored the photothermal application of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene in micro- or nanoscale devices, while its plasmonic potential in photothermal-induced fluid convection remains unexplored. Here, we numerically investigate a Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene-based plasmonic metasurface capable of photoinduced heat generation and driving nanoscale fluid convection. By combining optics, thermodynamics, and hydrodynamics simulations, we demonstrate that the arrays of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene nanodisks exhibit localized surface plasmonic resonances in an aqueous medium in the near-infrared frequencies. The wavelength-dependent photoinduced temperature profile of the structure closely follows the absorption spectra in a wide wavelength region of visible and near-infrared incident illumination, indicating efficient photothermal conversion. The photothermal-induced fluid convection across the incident wavelength also shows strong qualitative agreement with the spectral-dependent photoinduced heat profile and absorption spectra, which points to its significant practical application in nanophotonics and optofluidics.