Metal nanostructures with complex surface morphology: The case of supported lumpy Pd and Pt nanoparticles produced by laser processing of metal films

摘要

In this work we report on the formation of lumpy Pd and Pt nanoparticles on fluorine-doped tin oxide/ glass (FTO/glass) substrate by a laser-based approach. In general, complex-surface morphology metal nanoparticles can be used in several technological applications exploiting the peculiarities of their physical properties as modulated by nanoscale morphology. For example plasmonic metal nanoparticles presenting a lumpy morphology (i.e. larger particles coated on the surface by smaller particles) can be used in plasmonic solar cell devices providing broadband scattering enhancement over the smooth nanoparticles leading, so, to the increase of the device efficiency. However, the use of plasmonic lumpy nanoparticles remains largely unexplored due to the lack of simply, versatile, low-cost and high throughput methods for the controllable production of such nanostructures.