The reduction of the agglomeration of silver oxide nanosolids under the influence of pressure

Abstract

This project suggests an experimental methodology to diminish the agglomeration of nanoparticles by reducing the pressure. The approach considers the increase in the electrical impedance upon reducing the pressure as an indicator for the agglomeration diminishment. The impedance of a capacitive system of nanoparticles depends on the surface area. The current method has been applied on silver oxide nanoparticles thin layer prepared at our lab. At atmospheric pressure (101kPa), the impedance has been found to be higher than its value at 70 kPa (≈30kPa below ambient) by an amount that can reach four orders of magnitude at frequencies (≲20kHz). This establishes that reducing the pressure on the system decreases the impedance. This decrease indicates that the surface area increases and the twinning volumes (ε) between nanoparticles diminish and the agglomeration is reduced. This demonstrates that the agglomeration of the silver oxide nanoparticles has been reduced upon reducing the pressure.