| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Thin Film | Friday Sessions |
| Session TF2-FrM |
| Session: | Nanoparticles |
| Presenter: | A.T. Sellinger, University of Virginia |
| Authors: | A.T. Sellinger, University of Virginia E.M. Leveugle, University of Virginia L.V. Zhigilei, University of Virginia J.M Fitz-Gerald, University of Virginia |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The need to obtain nanoparticles with narrow size distributions has prompted the development of alternative processing methods. As an emerging area, laser processing has evolved into several widely accepted fields spanning from thin film growth, etching, lithography, and industrial fabrication to name a few. Within this field, the use of matrix-assisted laser processing has been successfully utilized in the deposition of soft materials in thin film form. One class of materials amenable to solution processing are acetates [X(OAc)2]. Acetates are a widely favored metallorganic precursor for thin film processing on various substrates due to their decomposition behavior under ultraviolet irradiation and/or low temperature. In this research, a dry method to synthesize nanoparticles from frozen salt solutions is reported. Synthesis of Pd, Au, and Ag nanoparticles including their binary and ternary compositions were grown by photo-chemical decomposition of starting metal acetates within host matrices of chloroform and water using an excimer laser operating at 248 nm. Frozen composite targets were ablated at fluences ranging from 0.10 J/cm2 to 1.0 J/cm2 at a processing pressures ranging from 10 mTorr to 1 Torr. The ejected nanoparticles were deposited on continuous carbon coated and lacey carbon transmission electron microscopy grids at ambient temperature. Characterization was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). High-resolution TEM analysis showed definitive evidence of elemental composition and confirmed that the size distributions which were narrow for the Pd system which exhibited mean diameters ranging from 2 to 3 nm while the Ag and Au systems were on the order of 10 nm with evidence of large particles. Additional research concerning the growth of complex, multi-component oxide nanoparticles will be presented as time permits.