Evaluation of the Mechanism of the Gold Cluster Growth during Heating of the Composite Gold-Polytetrafluoroethylene Thin Film.

Konstantin Grytsenko,Valeri Lozovski,Sigurd Schrader,Galyna Strilchuk

doi:10.3390/nano2040366

Abstract

Nanocomposite films consisting of gold inclusions in the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) matrix were obtained by thermal vacuum deposition. Annealing of the obtained films with different temperatures was used to measure varying of film morphologies. The dependence of optical properties of the films on their morphology was studied. It was established that absorption and profile of the nanocomposite film obtained by thermal vacuum deposition can be changed with annealing owing to the fact that different annealing temperatures lead to different average particle sizes. A method to calculate the optical properties of nanocomposite thin films with inclusions of different sizes was proposed. Thus, comparison of experimental optical spectra with the spectra obtained during the simulation enables estimating average sizes of inclusions. The calculations give the possibility of understanding morphological changes in the structures.

Highlights

Nanoparticles of noble metals are widely studied on account of their fundamental and practical applications in virtually all fields of the applied sciences
The Au-filled PTFE films were deposited onto glass and quartz slides with Au concentration ranging from ~5 to 21 vol %
transmission electron microscope (TEM) investigations show that Au cluster size was defined by Au Figure concentration

Summary

Introduction

Nanoparticles of noble metals are widely studied on account of their fundamental and practical applications in virtually all fields of the applied sciences. Different wet and gas phase deposition methods are used in order to obtain Au nanoclusters inside different types of matrixes. These methods are reviewed in [13,14,15]. There is a need for a rapid experimental method supplemented by a theoretical modeling This method allows evaluating the size, shape, and shape distribution of the inclusions inside the nanocomposite film.

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Conclusion