A gas-phase controlled synthetic approach is developed for the fabrication of noble metal-decorated hybrid nanoparticle clusters in the form of aqueous colloid. The approach includes an evaporation-induced self-assembly following a direct gas-phase electrophoresis for size classification and in situ characterization of mobility size. Results show that three types of hybrid nanostructures were successfully synthesized: (1) silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) decorated on a SiO2-NP and (2) AgNPs decorated in a cluster of SiO2-NPs (SiO2-NPC), and (3) AgNPs decorated in a cluster of TiO2-NPs (TiO2-NPC). Physical sizes, morphology, and compositions of Ag-SiO2 NPs and Ag-TiO2 NP were tunable through the adjustments of precursor concentrations and the selected mobility sizes. The performance in surface plasmon resonance, colloidal stability, and dispersibility of AgNPs enhanced significantly in an aqueous environment after hybridizing with SiO2-NPC and TiO2-NPC. The photocatalytic activity of Ag-TiO2 NPC was tunable by choosing the suitable chemical compositions and concentrations of precursors. Our work describes a prototype methodology to convert well-dispersed colloidal solution into noble metal-based hybrid nanostructures with high purity and well-controlled material properties.

Facile gas-phase self-assembly of noble metal-decorated hybrid nanoparticles for biomedical and photocatalytic applications

254th National Meeting (2017)

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