Adhesion of silver nanoparticles on the montmorillonite surface

Adhesion of silver nanoparticles on the montmorillonite substrate was investigated using molecular modeling (force field calculations) and experiment (infrared spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy). Modeling revealed the preferred orientation of silver nanoparticles on the silicate substrate and showed the strong dependence of total energy and stability of nanocomposite structure on two factors: (1) the mutual crystallographic orientation of nanoparticle and substrate structure and (2) the size and thickness of the nanoparticle. The size of silver single crystalline domains calculated by modeling was in good agreement with the experimental observations. Molecular modeling in confrontation with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis showed the prediction possibility as to the nanoparticles structure and stability of nanocomposite. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.