The development of silver nanoclusters in ion-exchanged soda-lime silicate glasses

Silver-containing soda-lime silicate glasses (chemical composition: 74.2 SiO 2 –14.3 Na 2 O –1.9 Al 2 O 3 –8.1 CaO–1.5 MgO, in wt%), formed by ion-exchange process, were thermal annealed in air at temperatures in the range of 500– 600 ∘ C . After annealing at 600 ∘ C for 45 h, the spherical nanoclusters were formed with ∼ 3–8 nm distribution in sizes. Increasing the ion-exchanged silver concentration decreased the annealing temperature to form nanoclusters.