Synthesis of silver nanoparticles from bottom up approach on borophosphate glass and their applications as SERS, antibacterial and glass-based catalyst

In this paper, we report a facile, low cost synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on borophosphate glass by a two-step process involving a melting quenching technique and a post-annealing method. The structural, optical properties and several applications of silver-doped borophosphate glasses as a function of Al2O3 concentration are reported here. Micro Raman and infrared spectroscopies revealed that the addition of aluminium ions leads to depolymerization and the formation of phosphate-aluminium structures. Moreover, the addition of Al2O3 increases the glass transition temperature, improve the chemical stability, and the AgNPs remain firmly grafted (i.e., not released) when the glass surface is exposed to water. The presence of silver ions and metallic silver on glass surface was confirmed by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), respectively. The fabricated AgNPs have many advantages, such as low growth temperature and good uniform nanoparticle clusters over large areas, size-controlled, and easy to fabricate. Finally, the silver-doped glasses have proved to be an ideal substrate for highly efficient SERS applications, antibacterial materials and great potential in catalysts.