New Discovery Could Help Fine-Tune Nanoparticle Alloys for Specific Uses
Written by AZoNanoApr 23 2021
There s gold in them thar nanoparticles, and there used to be a lot of silver, too. But much of the silver has leached away, and researchers want to know how.
Gold-silver alloys are useful catalysts that degrade environmental pollutants, facilitate the production of plastics and chemicals and kill bacteria on surfaces, among other applications. In nanoparticle form, these alloys could be useful as optical sensors or to catalyze hydrogen evolution reactions.
But there s an issue: Silver doesn t always stay put.
A new study by scientists at Rice University and the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, reveals a two-step mechanism behind silver s dissipation, a discovery that could help industry fine-tune nanoparticle alloys for specific uses.
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Home > Press > Silver ions hurry up, then wait as they disperse: Rice chemists show ions staged release from gold-silver nanoparticles could be useful property
Chemists at Rice University and the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany quantified the release of silver ions from gold-silver nanoparticle alloys. At top, transmission electron microscope images show the change in color as silver (in blue) leaches out of a nanoparticle over several hours, leaving gold atoms behind. The bottom hyperspectral images show how much a nanoparticle of silver and gold shrank over four hours as the silver leached away. (Credit: Rice University)