Preparation and optical properties of sodium borosilicate glasses containing Sb nanoparticles

Sb nanoparticles have been successfully prepared from SbCl3 in sodium borosilicate (Na2O-B2O3-SiO2) glass matrix by sol-gel method, involving metallic sodium as sodium source, boric acid as boron source and SiO2 come from hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane. The feasibility of process conditions were analyzed by using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric (TG), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). X-ray diffraction (XRD) study revealed that the rhombohedral structure of metal Sb have formed in the glass. The particle was found to be spherical shaped and highly monodispersed with an average size of about 32.63 nm as analyzed from transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Sb nanoparticle was studied from the UV-Vis absorption. The nonlinear optical properties were studied by using the Z-scan technique with a Ti: sapphire laser at 800 nm. Results showed that the third-order optical nonlinear susceptibility chi((3)) of the glass was determined to be 4.85 x 10 (11) esu. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.