H2-induced copper and silver nanoparticle precipitation inside sol-gel silica optical fiber preforms

A. Chahadih (1) , Hicham El Hamzaoui (1) , Odile Cristini-Robbe (1) , Laurent Bigot (1) , Remy Bernard (1) , Christophe Kinowski (1) , Mohamed Bouazaoui (1) , Bruno Capoen (1)

1 PhLAM - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules - UMR 8523

Ionic copper- or silver-doped dense silica rods have been prepared by sintering sol-gel porous silica xerogels doped with ionic precursors. The precipitation of Cu or Ag nanoparticles was achieved by heat treatment under hydrogen followed by annealing under air atmosphere. The surface plasmon resonance bands of copper and silver nanoparticles have been clearly observed in the absorption spectra. The spectral positions of these bands were found to depend slightly on the particle size, which could be tuned by varying the annealing conditions. Hence, transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of spherical copper nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 3.3 to 5.6 nm. On the other hand, in the case of silver, both spherical nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 3 to 6 nm and nano-rods were obtained.

Mots clés: copper nanoparticles; silver nanoparticles; surface plasmon resonance; sol-gel process; dense silica preforms

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

A. Chahadih, Hicham El Hamzaoui, Odile Cristini-Robbe, Laurent Bigot, Remy Bernard, et al.. H2-induced copper and silver nanoparticle precipitation inside sol-gel silica optical fiber preforms. Nanoscale Research Letters, 2012, 7, pp.487. ⟨10.1186/1556-276X-7-487⟩. ⟨hal-00880321⟩