Growth of silver nanoclusters embedded in soda-lime silicate glasses

Abstract

In this letter, silver nanoclusters' formation was observed in Ag-exchanged soda-lime silicate glasses, followed by thermal annealing in air at temperatures of 570 °C or 600 °C. Spectroscopic data indicated that the aggregation of silver atoms appeared after heating at 570 °C or 600 °C for more than 25 h, resulting in an absorption band at about 410 nm, due to the surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoclusters in glass. The band intensity of the absorption peak increases with heating time. The mean nanocluster radius estimated based on Mie theory was ∼1.5 nm after heating at 600 °C for 45 h.