Nanometer-scale metal dispersions in polymeric matrices
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
Rutherford backscattering spectrometry was used to measure the depth distribution of gold nanoparticles within thin layers of poly(t-butyl acrylate)(PTBA). The gold nanoparticles were created by evaporation of a discontinuous gold layer onto a thin film of PTBA. A second PTBA film was placed onto these samples to create ``sandwiches`` in which the gold existed between two PTBA films. Gold particle diffusion coefficients were measured from gold particle depth distributions in annealed samples for which the molecular weights of the two PTBA layers were identical. The experiments revealed that particle mobility was decreased by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude compared with predictions of the Stokes-Einstein model of particle diffusion. This is attributed to bridging interactions between particles arising from slow exchange kinetics of polymer segments at the polymer/metal interface. Experiments for which the molecular weights of the two polymer films are different, are sensitive to the ability of polymer molecules to pass through the gold particle layer. Experiments done with thermally evaporated particles are consistent with a picture in which polymer molecules are able to freely pass through the gold particle layer. Results with gold deposited by electron-beam evaporation are different: the gold is not able to diffuse and polymer molecules not able to penetrate the gold layer. These results, combined with optical absorption experiments, indicate that much smaller particles are obtained by electron-beam evaporation than by thermal evaporation.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 459996
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/MSD/CP-92161; CONF-961202-83; ON: DE97003160
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1996 Fall meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS), Boston, MA (United States), 2-6 Dec 1996; Other Information: PBD: Jan 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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