Spontaneous Agglomeration of Silver Nanoparticles Deposited on Carbon Film Surface

The spontaneous aggregation of silver nanoparticles on a two-dimensional surface at room temperature is investigated. The nanoparticles were deposited on a carbon film and have been observed by a transmission electron microscope (TEM) for over one year. These particles were about 10nm, spherical and well dispersed initially, and an obviously spontaneous agglomeration was observed at the 12th day, the values, coverage rate of the silver particles on carbon film, were increased with time (before 40th day), but reduced with time (after 40th day). These show that the aggregates of the particles tend to have the smallest surface to reduce their surface free energy and are compact three-dimensional cluster in which the most size is above 100nm. Agglomerating is a successively slow diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) growth. Another phenomenon, a big aggregate gathering some particles and a small aggregate to form a still bigger one, is observed. This indicates that the aggregating processes are controlled by migration of the particles on carbon film surface and surface energy of the particles.