Structural and optical analysis of silver nanoparticles grown on porous anodic alumina membranes by electro-less deposition

Abstract

In this paper, we report our studies on silver nanoparticles which were synthesized inside the pores of porous anodic alumina (PAA) membranes by electro-less deposition method. The morphology of silver (Ag) nanoparticles was studied using FE-SEM. The result of FE-SEM showed that the Ag nanoparticles were spherical in shape and spread in uniform manner throughout the membrane. The elemental composition of Ag nanoparticles was investigated by Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. Structural characterization using X-ray diffraction pattern showed that PAA was amorphous and silver nanoparticles on PAA were crystalline in nature. Absorbance and luminescent behaviour of PAA and Ag-PAA were studied using UV-Visible and Photoluminescence (PL) spectra. PL spectra results revealed the presence of a strong peak at 392 nm in blue region, confirming the fact that the silver nanoparticles were embedded in the alumina template. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd.