Optical and Structural Studies of B2O3–ZnO–Na2O–Li2O Glasses Containing Ag Nano Particles

Abstract

B2O3–ZnO–Na2O–Li2O (BZNL) based glasses containing silver nano particles (Ag NPs) were prepared by melt-quenching technique. Four reducing agents such as Bi2O3, As2O3, Sb2O3, SnO were separately used to reduce Ag+ ions into Ago atoms in the form of nano particles. The glasses were characterized by XRD, FTIR, DSC, Optical absorption and Raman spectroscopy. The amorphous nature of the prepared glasses was confirmed through XRD and SEM measurements. The EDS spectra showed that all the added elements were present in the respective glasses. The vibrational features of various functional groups like stretching vibrations of B–O linkages in BO4 tetrahedral, asymmetric stretching vibrations of B–O bond in BO3 trigonal units and vibrations of Zn–O bonds from ZnO4 groups were identified by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. From optical absorption studies it was observed that all prepared samples except SnO did not show characteristic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band of Ag. Therefore, all the samples were heat treated at 500oC in accordance with DSC thermogram to form Ag nano particles. The formation of Ag nanoparticles was confirmed by optical absorption spectra. The doping of SnO to BZNL-Ag glass system could assist the growth of silver nano particles was showed by a sharp peak in optical absorption spectra at 410 nm as SPR band.