Mohammad Jamal Al-Sharif
Najd National School, Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA
Plasmonic nanostructures have shown to be a powerful platform in the manipulation of light. In plasmonics, metal nanostructures can serve as antennas to convert light into localized electric fields or as waveguides to route light to desired locations with nanometer (nm) precision. This research developed new methods to synthesize more efficient and larger silver nanospheres. Silver (Ag) was chosen as the plasmonic nanoparticle due to its strong optical response and cost effective qualities. Because of that, studies have been developed for characterizing Ag in many different shapes such as nanocubes, nanospheres, nanorods and many other structures. Silver nanospheres with the size of 250-350nm were found to be promising shapes to enhance light applications. The procedures began by chemically synthesizing silver nanocubes with the size of 50 nm. The Ag nanocubes accounted for almost 90% of the solution. After that, the synthesized Ag nanocubes were used as seeds to grow larger cubes (250-350 nm). Finally, the edges of the Ag nanocubes were etched to gain Ag nanospheres. The dimensions of the silver nanocubes and spheres were confirmed using the Ultraviolet Visible Spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy. The positive outcomes of this innovative method can be used to increase the absorption of solar cells or other light applications. Silver, when reduced to nano dimensions, is prone to oxidation; therefore, in future studies the silver nanospheres need to be coated with a silica shell in order to prevent them from interacting with the environment.