Optical and electrical characterization of silver nanoparticles in soda lime silicate glasses

Optical absorption microspectrophotometry, thermally stimulated depolarization currents, and transmission electron microscopy were applied to characterize soda lime silicate glasses, in which Na was partially substituted by Ag, by means of an ion exchange process. The role of the exchange parameters (bath composition, time and temperature) and of annealing on the penetration depth and size-distribution of the silver nanoparticles was analysed. The TSDC spectra show up to three peaks in the range 200-450 K: the two main ones are in the ranges 280-290 K and 310-370 K, respectively. The latter is very sensitive to silver concentration, thermal annealing, and poling procedure and could be related to interfacial polarization effects