Low temperature self-agglomeration of metallic Ag nanoparticles on silica sol–gel thin films

Abstract

A facile sol–gel synthesis for self-agglomeration of metallic silver nanoparticles, with fcc crystalline structure, on the silica surface in a low annealing temperature has been introduced. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed initial agglomeration (∼30 times greater than the nominal concentration of Ag) of the nanoparticles on the surface of the dried film (100 °C) and also their oxidation as well as easy diffusion (with 0.08 eV required activation energy) into the porous silica thin films, by increasing the annealing temperature (200–400 °C). By raising the Ag concentration from 0.2 to 1.6 mol% in the sol, the average size of the Ag nanoparticles increased from ∼5 to 37 nm corresponding to a redshift of the optical plasmon resonance absorption peak from 404 to 467 nm. The high concentration of Ag (1.6 mol%) in the sol resulted in a rough surface containing compact nanoparticles. Using power spectral density analysis of the atomic force microscopy images, we have found that the highest contributions in the surface roughness of the dried silica films were caused by the particles ranging from ∼62 to 159 nm. The particles smaller than ∼39 nm did not show any detectable contributions in the surface roughness of the dried silica film. Based on the XPS analysis, a mechanism has also been proposed for the self-agglomeration of the Ag nanoparticles on the surface of the aqueous sol–gel silica thin films.