Comparative Study on Thermal and Laser Sintering of Silver Nanocubes and Silver Nanoplates

Abstract

Compared with silver nanowires and silver nanospheres, silver nanocubes and silver nanoplates with larger curvature structures like sharp vertices and edges have great potential in optical applications. In general, the controllable joining of silver nanomaterials has become an effective way to change the electrical and optical properties of silver nanomaterials in recent years. However, urgent research on the controllable joining of silver nanocubes or silver nanocubes is still rarely reported. After being thermal treated at 250 °C for 8 min, a good joining among silver nanocubes can be obtained without significant damage to the cubic structure. For laser sintering, with the increase of laser energy input, silver nanocubes gradually transform to spherical particles. Joining among few particles can be observed when silver nanocubes are scanned by 5 W of laser at 1.0 mm s−1. Obvious joining among silver nanocubes can be obtained by thermal treating at 300 °C for 5 min and laser scanning at 7 W at 0.2 mm s−1. Thermal heating is more suitable for forming different degrees of connection between silver nanocubes or between silver nanocubes, while laser treatment is suitable for changing the shape of silver nanocubes or silver nanocubes without obvious connection.