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1998
Journal Article
Titel
Determination of thermally induced microstructural changes of embedded metal nanoparticles by lateral and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy
Abstract
The size and sharpe of silver and indium nanoparticles embedded in a plasma polymer matrix formed from benzene or styrene monomer were determined by transmission electron microscopy in lateral direction and by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy in vertical direction. In multilayer assemblies consisting of plasma polymer/ plasma polymer metal composite/ plasma polymer, silver as well as indium nanoparticles were embedded only in one plane. XTEM micrographs on samples before and after appropriate thermal annealing showed, that the multilayer structure was not destroyed. At a higher annealing temperature and time, only parts of the plasma polymer matrix were left. With all thermal annealed samples, reshapening and coalescence of the embedded silver particles was found. For multilayers with embedded indium particles, the second plasma polymer layer was formed mainly as a shell around the large particles. During thermal annealing in the electron microscope, the formation of in dium oxide particles inside these shells was observed.