Growth of silver nanoclusters embedded in soda-lime silicate glasses

in this letter, silver nanoclusters' formation was observed in Ag-exchanged soda-lime silicate glasses, followed by thermal annealing in air at temperatures of 570 degrees C or 600 degrees C. Spectroscopic data indicated that the aggregation of silver atoms appeared after heating at 570 degrees C or 600 degrees C for more than 25 h, resulting in an absorption band at about 410 nm, due to the surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoclusters in glass. The band intensity of the absorption peak increases with heating time. The mean nanocluster radius estimated based on Mie theory was similar to 1.5 nm after heating at 600 degrees C for 45 h. (c) 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.