Sharif Digital Repository

Silica films containing various concentrations of Ag nanoparticles were deposited on glass slides using a sol-gel process and then heat-treated in air at different temperatures. The films were analysed by using UV-visible spectrophotometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for their optical, surface morphological as well as structural, and chemical properties. After heat-treatment, the optical absorption peaks of Ag nanoparticles show a blueshift and an intensity reduction due to particle size reduction and AgOx nanoparticle formation, respectively. The particle size reduction... 

Stochastic parameters of self-agglomerated metallic nanoparticles on a dielectric film surface were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. In this regard, the rough surfaces including the nanoparticles were analyzed and characterized using structure function, roughness exponent and power spectrum density of the AFM profiles and their gradients, for different metal concentrations and heat treatment temperatures. The diffusion parameters, such as activation energy, of the nanoparticles initially accumulated on the surface into a porous and aqueous silica thin film were obtained using the AFM spectral analysis of the profiles and their gradients. It was found that the tip... 

Bactericidal activity of high concentration Ag nanoparticles immobilized on surface of an aqueous sol-gel silica thin film was investigated against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Size of the surface nanoparticles was estimated in the range of 35-80 nm by using atomic force microscopy. Due to accumulation of the silver nanoparticles at near the surface (at depth of 6 nm and about 40 times greater than the silver concentration in the sol), the synthesized Ag-SiO2 thin film (with area of 10 mm2) presented strong antibacterial activities against E. coli and S. aureus bacteria with relative rate of reduction of the viable bacteria of 1.05 and 0.73 h-1 for initial... 

In this investigation, sol-gel synthesized nanoporous silica thin films, annealed at different temperatures, with long time superhydrophilic property have been studied. Two kinds of sol-gel silica thin films were fabricated by dip-coating of glass substrates in two different solutions; with low and high water. The transparent coated films were dried at 100 °C and then annealed in a temperature range of 200-500 °C. The average water contact angle of the silica films prepared with low water content and annealed at 300 °C measured about 5° for a long time (6 months) without any UV irradiation. Instead, adding water into the sol resulted in silica films with an average water contact angle... 

In this study, chemical durability of metallic copper nanoparticles dispersed in sol-gel silica thin films was investigated by exposing the films to air after a reduction process. At first, heat treatment in air for 1 h produced silica films containing crystalline cupric oxide nanoparticles agglomerated on the film surface. Subsequently, reduction of the oxidized films in a reducing environment of N2-H2 for another 1 h at temperatures of 400, 500 and 600 °C resulted in the formation of crystalline metallic Cu nanoparticles diffused in the silica matrix. The time evolution of the surface plasmon resonance absorption peak of the reduced Cu nanoparticles was studied after the reduction... 

In this study, electrochromic properties of cuprous oxide nanoparticles, self-accumulated on the surface of a sol-gel silica thin film, have been investigated by using UV-visible spectrophotometry in a lithium-based electrolyte cell. The cuprous oxide nanoparticles showed a reversible electrochromic process with a thin film transmission reduction of about 50% in a narrow wavelength range of 400-500 nm, as compared to the bleached state of the film. Using optical transmission measurement, we have found that the band gap energy of the films reduced from 2.7 eV for Cu2O to 1.3 eV for CuO by increasing the annealing temperature from 220 to 300 °C in an N2 environment for 1 h. Study of the band... 

A facile sol-gel synthesis for self-agglomeration of metallic silver nanoparticles, with fcc crystalline structure, on the silica surface in a low annealing temperature has been introduced. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed initial agglomeration (∼30 times greater than the nominal concentration of Ag) of the nanoparticles on the surface of the dried film (100 °C) and also their oxidation as well as easy diffusion (with 0.08 eV required activation energy) into the porous silica thin films, by increasing the annealing temperature (200-400 °C). By raising the Ag concentration from 0.2 to 1.6 mol% in the sol, the average size of the Ag nanoparticles increased from ∼5 to 37 nm...