Uniform Dispersion of Lanthanum Hexaboride Nanoparticles in a Silica Thin Film: Synthesis and Optical Properties
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- 作者：Fei Jiang ; Yee-Kwong Leong ; Martine Saunders ; Mariusz Martyniuk ; Lorenzo Faraone ; Adrian Keating ; John M. Dell
- 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
- 出版年：2012
- 出版时间：November 28, 2012
- 年：2012
- 卷：4
- 期：11
- 页码：5833-5838
- 全文大小：393K
- 年卷期：v.4,no.11(November 28, 2012)
- ISSN：1944-8252
文摘
Silica thin films containing uniformly dispersed lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) nanoparticles have been prepared by spin-coating a sol鈥揼el silica solution containing cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)-stabilized LaB6 nanoparticles onto a glass substrate followed by a standard heat treatment. The production of this thin film involved three steps: (i) a CTAB-stabilized LaB6 nanoparticle dispersion was prepared in water and then dried, (ii) the dried nanoparticles were redispersed in a small amount of water and mixed with tetraethoxyorthosilane (TEOS), ethanol, and a little acid to initiate the sol鈥揼el reaction, and (iii) this reaction mixture was spun to produce a thin film and then was annealed. A range of techniques such as zeta potential, laser sizing, energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM), scanning TEM (STEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS) were employed to characterize the particle's size, elemental composition, and stability and the optical properties of silica thin films with LaB6 nanoparticles. On the basis of the optical transmittance and reflectance spectra of an annealed silica thin film with LaB6 nanoparticles, the annealed thin films clearly showed positive absorption of radiation in the near infrared (NIR) region meeting a main objective of this study. A potential optical micro-electromechanical sensing system in the NIR range can be realized on the basis of this silica thin film with LaB6 nanoparticles.