Remy Bernard

H2-induced copper and silver nanoparticle precipitation inside sol-gel silica optical fiber preforms

Ionic copper- or silver-doped dense silica rods have been prepared by sintering sol-gel porous silica xerogels doped with ionic precursors. The precipitation of Cu or Ag nanoparticles was achieved by heat treatment under hydrogen followed by annealing under air atmosphere. The surface plasmon resonance bands of copper and silver nanoparticles have been clearly observed in the absorption spectra. The spectral positions of these bands were found to depend slightly on the particle size, which could be tuned by varying the annealing conditions. Hence, transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of spherical copper nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 3.3 to 5.6 nm. On the other hand, in the case of silver, both spherical nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 3 to 6 nm and nano-rods were obtained.

Direct-writing of PbS nanoparticles inside transparent porous silica monoliths using pulsed femtosecond laser irradiation

Pulsed femtosecond laser irradiation at low repetition rate, without any annealing, has been used to localize the growth of PbS nanoparticles, for the first time, inside a transparent porous silica matrix prepared by a sol-gel route. Before the irradiation, the porous silica host has been soaked within a solution containing PbS precursors. The effect of the incident laser power on the particle size was studied. X-ray diffraction was used to identify the PbS crystallites inside the irradiated areas and to estimate the average particle size. The localized laser irradiation led to PbS crystallite size ranging between 4 and 8 nm, depending on the incident femtosecond laser power. The optical properties of the obtained PbS-silica nanocomposites have been investigated using absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies. Finally, the stability of PbS nanoparticles embedded inside the host matrices has been followed as a function of time, and it has been shown that this stability depends on the nanoparticle mean size.

Room temperature direct space-selective growth of gold nanoparticles inside a silica matrix based on a femtosecond laser irradiation

Melting point phenomena of micron-sized indium particles embedded in an aluminum matrix were studied by means of acoustic emission. The acoustic energy measured during melting increased with indium content. Acoustic emission during the melting transformation suggests a dislocation generation mechanism to accommodate the 2.5% volume strain required for melting of the embedded particles. A geometrically necessary increase in dislocation density of 4.1 x 10^13 m^-2 was calculated for the 17 wt% indium composition.

Synthesis and nonlinear optical properties of zirconia-protected gold nanoparticles embedded in sol–gel derived silica glass

A new approach to dope a silica glass with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) is presented. It consisted in embedding zirconia-coated GNPs in a silica sol to form a doped silica gel. Then, the sol-doped nanoporous silica xerogel is densified leading to the formation of a glass monolith. The spectral position and shape of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) reported around 520 nm remain compatible with small spherical GNPs in a silica matrix. The saturable absorption behavior of this gold/zirconia-doped silica glass has been evidenced by Z-scan technique. A second-order nonlinear absorption coefficient β of about −13.7 cm GW−1 has been obtained at a wavelength near the SPR of the GNPs.

Porous Gold Films Fabricated by Wet-Chemistry Processes

Porous gold films presented in this paper are formed by combining gold electroless deposition and polystyrene beads templating methods. This original approach allows the formation of conductive films 2 × 106 Ω·cm−1 with tailored and interconnected porosity. The porous gold film was deposited up to 1.2 μm on the silicon substrate without delamination. An original zirconia gel matrix containing gold nanoparticles deposited on the substrate acts both as an adhesion layer through the creation of covalent bonds and as a seed layer for the metallic gold film growth. Dip-coating parameters and gold electroless deposition kinetics have been optimized in order to create a three-dimensional network of 20 nm wide pores separated by 20 nm thick continuous gold layers. The resulting porous gold films were characterized by GIXRD, SEM, krypton adsorption-desorption, and 4-point probes method. The process is adaptable to different pore sizes and based on wet-chemistry. Consequently, the porous gold films presented in this paper can be used in a wide range of applications such as sensing, catalysis, optics, or electronics.

Hall-Effect Measurements of Sol?Gel Derived CuInS2 Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications

CuInS2 thin films were prepared via the sol–gel process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies reveal that the thin films are well crystallized and they crystallize in a chalcopyrite phase. Hall-effect measurements were carried out, for the first time, on chalcopyrite CuInS2 films elaborated by the sol–gel method. Hence, the resistivity of the p-type CuInS2 films was found to be around 40 Ωcm and the carrier density was in the 1016 cm-3 range. Furthermore, the UV–vis absorption spectra show that the energy bandgap is 1.47 eV, a value close to the most favorable bandgap (1.53 eV) for solar cells.

Zirconia coating for enhanced thermal stability of gold nanoparticles

This paper describes a rapid, simple and one-step method for the preparation of 2–4 nm diameter zirconia-coated gold nanoparticles at room temperature. These nanoparticles were synthesized by two simultaneous processes: the chemical reduction of tetrachloroauric acid with sodium borohydride and the formation of zirconia sol–gel matrices. All the gold nanoparticle sols were characterized by UV–visible absorption and transmission electron microscopy to determine the nanoparticle size and shape. The synthesis method is a combination of a polymeric structure of the amorphous zirconia and the use of a strong reducing agent, and it yields to very small quasi-spherical gold nanoparticles at room temperature. The thermal stability up to 1200 °C of the coated nanoparticles was studied by x-ray diffraction. The metastable tetragonal phase of the zirconia coating was obtained at 400 °C, and a progressive transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic phases of the zirconia coating was observed up to 1100 °C. After the heat treatment at 400 °C, the crystallite size of the gold nanoparticles was about 29 nm, and it remained unchanged from 400 °C to 1200 °C. These results are promising for the development of such materials as doping elements for optical fiber applications.

Combination of porous silica monolith and gold thin films for electrode material of supercapacitor

An all-solid electrical double layer supercapacitor was prepared, starting from a porous silica matrix coated with a gold thin-film. The metallization of the silica xerogel was performed by an original wet chemical process, based on the controlled growth of gold nanoparticles on two opposite faces of the silica monolith as a seed layer, followed by an electroless deposition of a continuous gold thin film. The thickness of the metallic thin film was assessed to be 700 nm. The silica plays two major roles: (1) it is used as a porous matrix for the gold electrode, creating a large specific surface area, and (2) it acts as a separator (non-metallized part of the silica). The silica monolith was soaked in a polyvinyl alcohol and phosphoric acid mixture which is used as polymer electrolyte. Capacitance effect was demonstrated by cyclic voltammetry experiments. The specific capacitance was found to be equal to 0.95 mF cm− 2 (9.5 F g−1). No major degradation occurs within more than 3000 cycles.