Fabrication of Silver Shells onto Silica Sphere for Infrared Emissivity

Abstract

SiO2/Ag core-shell composite microspheres were synthesized by silver-seeding method in this paper. In the process, silver nanoparticles as seeds were deposited by repeating the cycle times for further formation of Ag shell. The effects of reaction power and time on the seeding of silica surfaces and the effect of silver ion on the growth of silver shells were investigated. Structures and properties were measured with TEM, UV, FT-IR and Infrared emissometer. The results showed the Ag nanoparticles on the silica surfaces were uniform in size. And the number density was increased growing with the increase of deposition. It was found that the composite exhibited a lower infrared emissivity value in the wavelength range from 8 to 14 μm than that of pure silica as a result of strong reflection of silver metal.