Optical absorption and TEM studies of silver nanoparticle embedded BaO-CaF2-P2O5 glasses

Abstract

Silver nanoparticle embedded 30BaO-20CaF2-50P2O5-4Ag2O-4SnO glasses were prepared by melt-quenching and subsequent heat treatment process. Silver-doped glasses were heat treated at temperatures 500 �C, 525�C and 550 �C for a fixed duration of 10 hours to incorporate metal nanoparticles into the glass matrix. Appearance and shift in peak positions of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bands in the optical absorption spectra of heat treated glass samples indicated that both formation and growth of nanoparticle depended on heat treatment temperature. Glass sample heat treated at 525 �C showed a SPR peak around 3 eV, which indicated that spherical nanoparticles smaller than 20 nm were formed inside the glass matrix. Whereas sample heat treated at 550 �C showed a size dependent red shift in SPR peak due to the presence of silver nanoparticles of size larger than 20 nm. Size of the nanoparticles calculated using full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of absorption band showed a good agreement with the particle size obtained from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. � 2016 Author(s).