Silver Doped Lithium Tetraborate Nanoparticles Synthesis and Evaluation

This study details an innovative single-step thermal synthesis of nano-sized lithium tetraborate doped with 0.1 % wt silver and its evaluation. The heating temperature for the synthesis of the nanoparticulate material was optimized by variation between 500- 850 ◦C. The optimum amoun of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), the capping agent, was determined to be 0.018 mole per 1 gram LTB-Ag. The calcination time was 2 h. Characterization of the samples was carried out using Thermogravimetry Analysis (TGA), Derivative Thermogravimetry (DTG), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, X-ray Diffractometry (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectrosco py. The product was thermally stable above 460 ◦C. FTIR, XRD and TEM results confirmed the formation of pure nano-crystalline silver doped lithium tetraborate between 450 and 750 ◦C. The optical bandgap was estimated to be 5.0-5.3 eV in the presence of different amounts of PVP at arious calcination temperatures.

Keywords:

Silver doped , single step , thermal treatment , slow separation nucleation