Silver nanoparticle method on zinc oxide films
AssigneeKing Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
InventorsQasem Ahmed Drmosh, Mohammad Kamal Hossain, Nouar Amor Tabet
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Abstract
A method of preparing silver nanoparticles, including silver nanorings. A zinc oxide thin film is formed initially by direct-current sputtering of a zinc target onto a substrate. A silver thin film is then formed by a similar sputtering technique, of a silver target onto the zinc oxide thin film. After that, the silver thin film is subject to an annealing treatment. The temperature, duration and atmosphere of the annealing treatment can be varied to control the average particle size, average distance between particles (density), particle size distribution of the silver nanoparticles. In at least one embodiment, silver nanoparticles of ring structure are produced.
Claims5
An O2 reactive plasma/Ag sputtering method on zinc metal to form silver nanoparticles, comprising:
- forming a zinc oxide film by plasma reacting oxygen with a zinc metal target,
- sputtering silver onto the zinc oxide film to form a silver film on the zinc oxide film;
- and
- annealing the silver film to form the silver nanoparticles from the silver film;
- wherein the annealing is carried out at a temperature of 400-700° C. for a duration of 3-24 hours under an atmosphere of argon, nitrogen or air.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.