Davide Mariotti1,Hessan Khalid1,Attaul Haq1,Paul Maguire1
Ulster University1
Davide Mariotti1,Hessan Khalid1,Attaul Haq1,Paul Maguire1
Ulster University1
Nowadays research on the synthesis and application of nanostructured perovskite oxide has drawn great attention. Among them, exsolution of nanoparticles (NPs) from oxide platform is considered as an effective method for various energy conversion/storage, and catalytic applications. Exsolution offers great controllability on the NPs size and distribution along with displaying good anchorage with the oxide support. Conventional exsolution routes often require extreme processing conditions i.e., elevated temperature and lengthy processing times. Recently, our group has demonstrated a new pathway to exsolution of Ni NPs, within minutes rather than hours, from perovskites (La<sub>0.43</sub>Ca<sub>0.37</sub>Ti<sub>0.94</sub>Ni<sub>0.06</sub>O<sub>2.955</sub>) using plasmas operating at room temperature.<sup>1</sup> Herein, we have demonstrated the exsolution of silver (Ag) NPs from perovskite oxide scaffold through low pressure plasma. Perovskite oxide (POx) having a composition of La<sub>(1-x)</sub>Ag<sub>x</sub>FeO<sub>3</sub> (LAFO) with varying Ag doping (0.01 - 0.05 %) was synthesized to understand the maximum solubility of Ag in the perovskite matrix. LAFO was then treated in low-pressure plasma for 15 min resulting in the exsolution of Ag NPs from LAFO matrix at room temperature. The average size of Ag NPs lies within the range of 10-20 nm with a uniform exsolution over the entire exposed surface. The nature of exsolved NPs were found to be metallic as supported by XPS analysis. The strong socketing nature of such NPs were observed in high-resolution TEM. Plasma exsolution of Ag will open new dimension of research in the field of exsolution and provides future solutions in electrocatalysis and in many plasmonic based applications.<br/><br/>References<br/>1. Khalid, H., Haq, A.U., Savaniu, C., Irvine, J.T. and Mariotti, D., 2020, May. Plasma Gas-Phase Electrochemistry to Induce Nanoparticles Exsolution from Non-Stoichiometric Perovskite Oxides. In <i>237th ECS Meeting with the 18th International Meeting on Chemical Sensors (IMCS 2020)(May 10-14, 2020)</i>. ECS.