Enhancement of photoluminescence of the CdSe/CdS quantum dots on quartz substrates in the presence of silver nanoparticles

Multilayer systems consisting of layers of hybrid quantum dots are fabricated. The quantum dots with the CdSe/CdS core/shell structure are chemically synthesized and deposited on the surface of quartz glass that contains ion-synthesized silver nanoparticles in the near-surface region. Silver nanoparticles exhibit optical absorption owing to the localized surface plasmon resonance. Variations in the photoluminescence intensity of the layer related to an increase in the distance from the quartz surface with metal nanoparticles are studied. An increase in the photoluminescence intensity is observed under excitation in the spectral region of the plasmon absorption of silver nanoparticles. An optimal distance between the layers is determined to maximize the enhancement of the photoluminescence of quantum dots in the presence of the near field of metal nanoparticles.     

The influence of low-temperature silver-ion exchange on the spectral-luminescent properties of fluorophosphate glasses doped with PbSe

Changes in the absorption and luminescence spectra of fluorophosphate glasses doped with PbSe caused by low-temperature Ag⁺–Na⁺ ion exchange are considered. It is found that the silver distribution gradient in a near-surface layer about 16 μm thick leads to two different processes of interaction between metal and semiconductor nanoparticles. PbSe molecular clusters and quantum dots more efficiently grow in deep layers with a low silver concentration. The near-surface glass layers with a high silver concentration exhibit formation of Ag metal nanoparticles, on the surface of which interaction with PbSe molecular clusters leads to the formation of Ag–Se–Pb bonds, which transform into Ag₂Se layers in the process of heat treatment. The appearance of the new phase is confirmed by X-ray diffraction.     

Fluorescence Modulation of Acridine and Coumarin Dyes by Silver Nanoparticles

Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical reduction of silver ions by sodium borohydride in the presence of poly-(N)-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone in solution of short chain alcohols. The nanoparticles are stable in 2-propanol, and the average diameter of the Ag colloid obtained in this solvent is about 6 nm. The photophysical properties of acridinium and coumarin dyes in 2-propanol are affected by the presence of silver nanoparticles. The interaction of silver nanoparticles with acridinium derivative leads to a spectral change of its intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) absorption band. The dye emission increases suddenly with the initial addition of the Ag metal nanoparticles, but at a high concentration of the colloid, static fluorescence quenching occurs with a progressive decrease of the fluorescence efficiency. Amino coumarin fluorescence is only quenched by the silver nanoparticles in solution.     

Laser annealing of dielectrics with metal nanoparticles

The effect of nanosecond excimer laser pulses on a composite layer of sodium-calcium silicate glass with silver nanoparticles has been investigated. Nanoparticles were synthesized by ion implantation. Based on measuring the optical absorption and reflection spectra of the composite layers, it is found that an increase in the number of laser pulses leads to a monotonic decrease in the size of silver nanoparticles. However, laser irradiation with a longer duration leads to the growth of nanoparticles with their subsequent destruction. The effects observed are discussed in terms of heating a glass composite layer as a result of the effective absorption of laser radiation.     

The investigation of oxidized silver nanoparticles prepared by thermal evaporation and radio-frequency sputtering of metallic silver under oxygen

The investigation of oxidized silver nanoparticles by the photoemission (XPS, UPS) and HRTEM methods was performed. The nanoparticles of oxidized silver were obtained in the vacuum chamber by two methods of synthesis: thermal evaporation of silver nanoparticles followed by transferring in convective gas flow and sputtering of oxidized clusters under the action of plasma. Both methods indicated that oxygen interaction with silver nanoparticles depends strongly on its size. It was shown that the chemical bonding of oxygen species stabilized on small particles differs from the oxygen species adsorbed on bulk silver surfaces (monocrystals, foils and large particles). The low charged oxygen with molecular type of bonding stabilizes on particles of size approximately 5 nm and smaller. Increasing particle size leads to the dissociation of molecular oxygen species and the formation of strongly charged oxygen composed of oxide nanoparticles like Ag₂O or AgO type. The presence of extended defects in the microdomain large nanoparticles facilitates the formation of Ag₂O or AgO layers covering metallic nanosilver.     

聚乙烯吡咯烷酮相对分子质量对银纳米结构的影响

探讨了相对分子质量不同的聚乙烯吡咯烷酮对多元醇法制备银纳米结构的影响,采用扫描电镜和X射线衍射仪对样品进行了表征及分析,并用紫外可见分光光度计研究了粒子的光学性质。实验结果表明:在相同的实验条件下,不同相对分子质量聚乙烯吡咯烷酮将得到不同形貌的银纳米粒子;相对分子质量为1×104的聚乙烯吡咯烷酮得到的银纳米线产率最大,随着聚乙烯吡咯烷酮相对分子质量增加,银纳米线将减少,相应的银纳米立方体将增多。     

Surface Plasmon Resonance and Aggregate Stability of Silver Nanoparticle Complexes with Chemotripsin

Extinction spectra, effective sizes, and aggregate stability of silver nanoparticles and nanocomplexes of silver nanoparticles with chymotrypsin obtained by the reactions of chemical reduction of silver nitrate using sodium borohydride as a reducing agent are studied. It is shown that silver nanoparticles obtained in the absence of chymotrypsin are aggregatively stable only at pH values immediately after synthesis. The placement of the synthesized silver nanoparticles in buffer solutions with pH values from 3.0 to 12.0 resulted in the appearance of a wide absorption band in the visible region of the spectrum, which is due to the agglomeration of silver nanoparticles, which appears to be the result of the destruction of the double electric layer formed by the ions making up sodium borohydride. The presence of chymotrypsin in the reaction medium resulted in significant spectral changes. Unlike silver nanoparticles synthesized in the absence of chymotrypsin, for nanocomplexes of silver nanoparticles with chymotrypsin with a change in pH, the shape of the extinction spectra and the position of the surface plasmon resonance band were preserved, while nanocomplexes of silver nanoparticles with chymotrypsin retained the aggregative stability in solutions in the pH range from 3.0 to 12.0 within a month. The observed stabilization effect of silver nanoparticles over a wide pH range induced by the presence of chymotrypsin in the reaction medium can be used further to develop methods for immobilizing enzymes on nanoparticles of biogenic elements and for creating polyfunctional pharmaceuticals, in which the components of nanocomplexes have different biological activity.     

银纳米粒子自组装复合LB膜的结构与性质

纳米粒子的自组装和有序组装膜的结构与性质近年来受到了人们的广泛关注,纳米粒子的表面结构与性质对由其组装成的有序膜的结构与性质有直接的影响。文章报道了利用自组装技术制备的银纳米粒子与双亲有机分子的单层和多层复合LB膜,通过吸收光谱和表面增强拉曼光谱研究了银纳米粒子与吸附分子间的相互作用,探讨了复合膜的成膜特性及银纳米粒子的拉曼增强特性。十八胺/银粒子复合LB膜的吸收光谱及拉曼光谱显示,十八胺分子与银纳米粒子表面的活位通过NH₂中的氮原子以复合体的形式结合;同时,在激发光的作用下复合体可能存在光催化过程。根据银粒子复合LB膜的实验结果,十八胺和十八酸之间的反应产物在复合膜中起空间位阻作用,与银粒子表面的相互作用较弱。     

Fabrication and characterization of a granular film consisting of size-selected silver nanoparticles: application to a SERS substrate

Uniform-sized silver nanoparticles with average diameter of 13.7 nm have been prepared in the gas-phase by combining a pulsed laser ablation method with a low pressure-differential mobility analyzer (LP-DMA). By depositing the silver nanoparticles onto a silicon substrate, a granular film consisting of size-selected silver nanoparticles has been fabricated and its morphology and electronic properties have been examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. This granular silver film serves as a highly active substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).     

Modelling of optical absorption of silver NP’s produced by UV radiation embedded in mesostructured silica films

Hexagonal mesostructured films containing silver ions were obtained by sol–gel method. Brij 58 was used to produce channels into the film, which house these ions. The films were exposure to UV radiation to produced silver metallic nanoparticles. The presence of the metallic nanoparticles was determined by infrared spectroscopy and optical absorption. Besides, these nanoparticles and core–shell structures of silver–silver oxide nanoparticles were identified by high-resolution transmission electronic microscopy. From these measurements, the obtained size range for silver nanoparticles was 6.1 nm. The absorption spectrum located at 440 nm was modelled and well fitted with the Gans theory considering refractive index higher than the one coming from host matrix. This index is explained because the silver oxide shell modifies the local surrounding medium of the metallic nanoparticles.     

Kinetic aspects of the silver ion release from antimicrobial polyamide/silver nanocomposites

Spherical silver nanoparticles were grown in situ in different polyamides by a thermal reduction of silver acetate during melt processing of the polymers. Most of the particles have a diameter of about 20 nm. The absolute amount as well as the kinetics of the silver ion release from the various polyamide/silver nanocomposites differ strongly, although the filler content in all materials is the same (1.5 wt. %) and the morphologies of the silver particles are not very different. One result of the investigations was that the absolute amount of the long-term silver ion release increases exponentially with the maximum water absorption of the polymers used as matrix materials, because silver ions are formed from elemental silver particles in the presence of water, only. Moreover, it was also found that the long-term silver ion release increases with a growing diffusion coefficient of water in the polymer. The water absorption properties of the polymers govern the kinetics of the silver ion release, too: for strong hydrophilic polyamides like PA6 or PA6.6, which are plasticized by water, the silver ion release is a zero-order process. For nanocomposites with less hydrophilic polyamides like a cycloaliphatic polyamide or a P12 modified with polytetrahydrofurane (PA12-poly-THF), the silver ion release is governed by diffusion. As expected from the efficacy of the silver ion release, PA6, PA6.6, PA12 and PA12 modified with polytetrahydrofurane and a cycloaliphatic polyamide filled with 1.5 wt. % of silver nanoparticles are active against Escherichia coli. But, only nanocomposites with PA6, PA6.6 and P12-poly-THF as matrix materials are suitable as long-term biocidal materials. PACS 68.35.bm; 68.35.Fx; 68.37.Lp     

一种新型银溶胶的制备、表征及其SERS活性的研究

报道了用一种化学还原方法制备银溶胶的新方法。用紫外-可见光谱和透射电镜研究银纳米粒子的形成过程,粒子形状及粒径分布。结果表明,在反应初期形成球形和棒状两种形状的银纳米粒子,随着反应的进行,大部分的棒状粒子逐渐变为球形粒子,最终棒状粒子少于银纳米粒子总数的3%。因此,最终得到了一种形状均一的,平均粒径为17nm银纳米粒子。同时也用紫外-可见光谱研究了Cl-的加入对这种银纳米粒子光谱性质的影响,结果表明Cl-加速了银纳米粒子的聚集。这种银溶胶有着较高的SERS活性。     

Optical Properties of Planar Nanostructures Based on Semiconductor Quantum Dots and Plasmonic Metal Nanoparticles

The optical properties of a composite material consisting of a thin polymer film, which is activated by semiconductor CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) and silver nanoparticles, on a transparent dielectric substrate have been investigated. It is revealed that the presence of silver nanoparticles leads to an increase in the QD absorption (by a factor of 4) and in the fluorescence intensity (by a factor of 10), whereas the fluorescence time drops by a factor of about 10. Excitation of the composite medium by a pulsed laser is found to result in narrowing of the fluorescence band and a sublinear dependence of its intensity on the pulse energy. In the absence of silver nanoparticles, the fluorescence spectrum of QDs is independent of the excitation-pulse energy density, and the fluorescence intensity depends linearly on the pulse energy in the entire range of energy densities, up to 75 mJ/cm².     

Optical absorption of composite systems with silver nanoparticles dispersed in arabinogalactan and arabinogalactan-g-polypyrrole block copolymer matrices

The absorption of a nanocomposite of silver nanoparticles and arabinogalactan in the UV–Vis spectral range is due to the presence of end aldehyde groups in the arabinogalactan and plasmon vibrations in 0D nanosilver. The absorption spectrum of a fundamentally new nanocomposite of silver with arabinogalactan-g-polypyrrole block copolymer reveals additional long-wavelength overlapping absorption bands resulting from the longitudinal component of plasmon resonance in 1D nanosilver and polarons in polypyrrole.     

Specific features of absorption spectra of fractal-structured silver sols

Effects exerted on plasmon absorption spectra by different characteristics of aggregating silver sols with a fractal distribution of particles whose sizes are in the range 5–30 nm are studied by mathematical simulation with the aid of a modification of the method of coupled dipoles. Distinctive features of plasmon absorption contours of silver sols having different particle-size distribution functions and different properties of the adsorption layers of the particles are explained.     

Ion synthesis of silver nanoparticles in viscous-fluid epoxy resin

A method is described for the ion synthesis of silver nanoparticles in epoxy resin that is in a viscousfluid state (viscosity 30 Pa s) during irradiation. The viscous-fluid or glassy polymer is implanted by 30-keV silver ions at a current density of 4 μA/cm² in the ion beam in the dose range 2.2 × 10¹⁶–7.5 × 10¹⁶ ions/cm². The epoxy layers thus synthesized contain silver nanoparticles, which are studied by transmission electron microscopy and optical absorption spectroscopy. The use of the viscous-fluid state increases the diffusion coefficient of the implanted impurity, which stimulates the nucleation and growth of nanoparticles at low implantation doses and allows a high factor of filling of the polymer with the metal to be achieved.     

Fluorescent silver nanoparticles via exploding wire technique

Aqueous solution containing spherical silver nanoparticles of 20–80 nm size have been generated using a newly developed novel electro-exploding wire (EEW) technique where thin silver wires have been exploded in double distilled water. Structural properties of the resulted nanoparticles have been studied by means of X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The absorption spectrum of the aqueous solution of silver nanoparticles showed the appearance of a broad surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak centered at a wavelength of 390 nm. The theoretically generated SPR peak seems to be in good agreement with the experimental one. Strong green fluorescence emission was observed from the water-suspended silver nanoparticles excited with light of wavelengths 340, 360 and 390 nm. The fluorescence of silver nanoparticles could be due to the excitation of the surface plasmon coherent electronic motion with the small size effect and the surface effect considerations     

Interaction between silver nanoparticle and bovine hemoglobin at different temperatures

The binding of silver nanoparticles to bovine hemoglobin (BHb) was studied by fluorescence, UV–Visible, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic techniques at different temperatures of 20, 37, and 42 °C. The absorption spectrum of soret band, in the presence of silver nanoparticle, showed a significant spectral change, which indicated the heme groups of BHb were directly attacked and degraded by silver nanoparticle. The fluorescence data explained that the nanoparticle binding to BHb occurred at a single binding site, which demonstrated a dynamic quenching procedure. Nanoparticles could reduce the fluorescence of tryptophanyl residues of BHb to a lesser extent. Circular dichroism studies demonstrated a conformational change of BHb in the presence of silver nanoparticles. The helicity of BHb was reduced by increasing silver nanoparticle concentration at different temperatures. Thermodynamic analysis of the protein interaction by silver nanoparticles suggested that the binding process is only entropy driven.     

Photochemical synthesis of ZnO/Ag nanocomposites

Composite ZnO/Ag nanoparticles have been formed via the photocatalytic reduction of silver nitrate over the ZnO nanocrystals, their optical, electrophysical and photochemical properties have been investigated. Mie theory has been applied to analyze the structure of the absorption spectra of ZnO/Ag nanocomposite. The irradiation effects upon the optical properties of ZnO/Ag nanostructure have been investigated. It has been found that the irradiation of ZnO/Ag nanoparticles results in electrons accumulation by both the semiconductor and the metallic components of the nanocomposite. It has been found that silver nitrate can be photochemically deposited onto the surface of ZnO nanoparticles under the illumination with the visible light in the presence of the sensitizer – methylene blue. Kinetics of the sensitized Ag(I) photoredution has been studied. It has been concluded that the key stage of this process is the electron injection from singlet-excited methylene blue molecule into ZnO nanoparticle.     

Preparation and properties of nano-sized Ag and Ag2S particles in biopolymer matrix

Silver (Ag) and silver sulfide (Ag₂S) nanoparticles were synthesized in a sago starch matrix. The resulting nanocomposites were investigated using structural, optical and thermal methods. XRD spectra of the nanocomposites confirmed the presence of nanostructured silver (cubic phase) and silver sulfide (monoclinic phase) in the matrix. TEM micrographs showed that the nanoparticles are mostly spherical in shape. Analyzes of the optical properties of the silver nanocomposite aqueous dispersions/solutions of various concentrations were carried out. The results and the theoretical considerations suggested that at high concentrations there is a release of silver nanoparticles from the composite in the water environment. Further dilution produces homogeneous solution in which silver nanoparticles are capped with starch macromolecules. TGA analysis revealed reduced thermal stability of the nanocomposites with respect to pure starch matrix.