Long before humans discovered iron smelting, ancient people engaged in glassmaking at least 6,000 years ago, with silicate glass being the oldest type of glass manufactured. Gold nanoparticles have been integrated into silicate glass for centuries for art and decoration. The nanoparticles affect the silicate glass's interaction with light through the localized surface plasmon resonance.
This light modulation behavior has several uses, ranging from colored glass to special optical components. Modulating light in gold nanoparticles has inspired scientists to utilize them in other types of glass to generate new optical functionalities.
Harnessing the Potential of Tellurite Glass
Of the many types of glass, tellurite glass has been of particular interest to experts due to its unique combination of properties. This glass is durable, easy to fabricate, has a wide transmission window, and has low phonon energy. Its high solubility of luminescent rare earth ions also allows these particles to emit bright light from visible to infrared light over a wide spectral range.
Scientists consider several features like sensing technologies and laser systems to maximize the potential of optics, lasers, and telecommunication technologies. Achieving the desired light modulation behavior requires careful control of the gold nanoparticles' shape, size, distribution, and quantity. However, while the so-called striking technique effectively forms gold nanoparticle silicate glass, it has proven insufficient to control gold nanoparticles precisely in tellurite glass.
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Fine-Tuning Gold Nanoparticles
In the study "Controlled formation of gold nanoparticles with tunable plasmonic properties in tellurite glass," experts have developed a new approach to forming gold nanoparticles in tellurite glasses. The research team includes Professor Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem and Dr. Yunle Wei from the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences from The University of Adelaide in Australia, as well as Dr. Jiangbo Zhao from the School of Engineering at the University of Hull in the UK.
In this experiment, the scientists identified the challenges in traditional striking techniques to create gold nanoparticles in tellurite glass. Based on the chance discovery of gold nanoparticle formation in tellurite glass, they developed completely new methods for both steps of the striking technique. These include incorporating gold ions into the glass through a controlled cold crucible corrosion technique and transforming the gold ions into gold nanoparticles through the glass powder reheating technique.
For both techniques, the critical step for gold dissolution involves the oxidation of gold atoms to gold cation. In the gold salt doping technique, the gold atom occurs as gold metal particles created through gold salt decomposition from batch heating. In the controlled gold crucible corrosion technique, the gold crucible is the source of gold. The Mie theory was also used to determine the size, size distribution, and concentration of the gold nanoparticles formed in tellurite glass from the plasmonic properties of the nanoparticles.
The innovative method of precisely controlling gold nanoparticle formation in tellurite glass offers guidance for designing and manipulating the plasmonic properties of tellurite glass for photonics research and applications in the future. This research is an example of turning a serendipitous discovery into an innovative technology with potential for real-world impact.
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