Particle Size and Pore Structure Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Prepared by Confined Arc Plasma

In the protecting inert gas, silver nanoparticles were successfully prepared by confined arc plasma method. The particle size, microstructure, and morphology of the particles by this process were characterized via X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the corresponding selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The N2 absorption-desorption isotherms of the samples were measured by using the static volumetric absorption analyzer, the pore structure of the sample was calculated by Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) academic model, and the specific surface area was calculated from Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) adsorption equation. The experiment results indicate that the crystal structure of the samples is face-centered cubic (FCC) structure the same as the bulk materials, the particle size distribution ranging from 5 to 65 nm, with an average particle size about 26 nm obtained by TEM and confirmed by XRD and BET results. The specific surface area is 23.81 m2/g, pore volumes are 0.09 cm3/g, and average pore diameter is 18.7 nm