Properties of glasses with silver nanoparticles

The authors used chemical and physicochemical methods to obtain silver nanoparticles of defined morphology, and then carried out glass melting and crystallization. After crystallization, the glasses were subjected to UV-VIS spectrophotometric tests to determine the effect of the shape and size of the nanoparticles on the colour of the glasses and the quantitative EDS analysis to determine the elemental composition of the obtained glass. The synthesis of silver nanoparticles was carried out using two ways: by electrochemical method and by chemical reduction in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide CTab. The electrochemical method made it possible to obtain round nanoparticles of various sizes. The chemical method made allowed for obtaining elongated particles with a variable ratio of diameter to length of nanoparticles. The less silver nanoparticles added, the more intensely the glass absorbs the light wave, resulting in an intense red colour. On the other hand, as the content of silver nanoparticles in glass increases, the glass absorbs the light wave to a lesser extent; as a result, the colour is less intense (pink). However, it is not the percentage of silver in the glass that determines its colour, but the shape, distribution and size of silver nanoparticles that are crucial for obtaining the desired colour of the glass. The intensity and colour tint of the tested glasses depended on the conditions of the crystallization process. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by UV-VIS spectrophotometry and SEM scanning electron microscopy.