Abstract

AbstractA new method of ion‐exchange between raw compounds containing copper oxide and alkali glasses has been used to grow copper nanoparticles within a glass matrix, forming a metal–glass nanocomposite that is the structure on which both ancient and modern lustre glazes are based. When excited by X‐rays at 300 K, two dominant emission bands appear in the material in the visible region, peaking at 2.60 eV and 1.98 eV. Synchrotron radiation methods are deployed that enables the luminescence and structural properties of the nanocomposite to be interlinked. Standard Extended X‐ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) shows that both metallic copper and copper oxide local sites structure are present in the glass matrix, and the detailed atomic arrangement of each are derived; however, the method provides no information as to whether either structures are actually involved in the luminescence processes. In order to provide this direct link, Optically Detected X‐ray Absorption Spectroscopy (OD‐XAS) has been deployed, and this provides strong evidence that copper metal nanoparticles are responsible for the red emission. The method also shows that the X‐ray absorption processes of the metal particles and silicate lattice (that result in the red and blue emissions respectively) are distinctly different. This is the first report of OD‐XAS involving metallic nanoparticles, and opens the possibility of using the method more generally for metal nanoparticle research. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

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